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‘[Matthew] Harris received his PhD from Duke University in 2019. It has been alleged that while there, he engaged in some inappropriate actions with or in regard to students, and that some faculty in the Department of Philosophy at Duke were aware of issues with his behavior; it has been alleged that some Duke faculty recommended that he not be left alone with students.’

So nu? How did Harris get to UCLA? Does his dissertation advisor, Andrew Janiak, have anything to contribute?

Were there other faculty in the Philosophy department who may have known, or suspected, that they were handing along a dangerous person to UCLA?

For him to land at that distinguished school, his letters of recommendation must have been excellent. All written by people with no negative knowledge of him?

Did this bit from his brief autobiography at the end of his dissertation not seem strange to anyone?

[H]e also gave lectures about his innovative philosophical research to crowds at Stanford University, Cornell University and Princeton University.

Margaret Soltan, February 2, 2022 10:41AM
Posted in: professors

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4 Responses to “‘[Matthew] Harris received his PhD from Duke University in 2019. It has been alleged that while there, he engaged in some inappropriate actions with or in regard to students, and that some faculty in the Department of Philosophy at Duke were aware of issues with his behavior; it has been alleged that some Duke faculty recommended that he not be left alone with students.’”

  1. Seelye Martin Says:
    February 2nd, 2022 at 12:15PM

    An odd thesis, written in the form of a late-night bull session. Especially enjoyed his acknowledgement to his “non-human” predecessors. I’ m surprised he got a degree and a position at UCLA. Did anyone actually read his thesis?

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:
    February 2nd, 2022 at 12:52PM

    Seelye: I doubt anyone read it, or will admit to having read it, but we will see. Bizarre writing/self-presentation is almost a requirement in some corners of the humanities (see this high-profile case), so even if someone read the thesis, they are unlikely to have batted an eyelash.

  3. Louis Zapst Says:
    February 2nd, 2022 at 7:12PM

    Briefly perusing the main text of the dissertation, I find that the style and content is not strange in the least for a scholarly philosophical work. The eccentric bio at the end seems to have been added afterwards. I was curious how this guy actually earned a degree, but the dissertation looks legit. More interesting is that he seems to have found one of the fews ways he could decisively and irrevocably destroy his academic career.

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:
    February 2nd, 2022 at 8:51PM

    Yes – that’s why I’ve said nothing about the dissertation itself, and only commented on the reference to his “crowds” in the bio at the end. I’ve scanned it too, and find it a recognizable philosophy thesis, drawing on metaphysics and empiricism to try to answer whether skin color is constitutive of one’s experience of the world.

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