You’ll be pleased to know (perhaps) that Shin Jeong-ah has been stripped of her post as art director of the Gwangju Biennale after media reports that she forged her university degrees. (HT to reader)
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“In a telephone interview with the Chosun Ilbo Tuesday, Shin, currently on a business trip in Europe, said, “I certainly did receive a degree from Yale which is proven by the document Dongguk received from Yale in 2005. I will make a statement and take legal action as soon as I return to Seoul.”
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....20008.html
Well…:
“2005s, Huang, Bingyi, “From Chu to Western Han: Re-reading Mawangdui”
Adviser: David Sensabaugh
2005s, Jarman, Baird, “Galahad in the Gilded Age: Edwin Austin Abbey’s The Quest of the Holy Grail and the Campaign for Civic Virtue”
Adviser: Jules D. Prown
2005s, Lai, Yu-chih, ” Surreptitious Appropriation: Ren Bonian (l840-l895) and Japanese Culture in Shanghai, 1842-1895″
Adviser: Richard Barnhart
2005s, O’Neil, Megan, “Making Visible History: Engaging Ancient Maya Sculpture”
Adviser: Mary Miller
2005s, Thompson, Joanne, “Images of Vesta and the Vestal Virgins in Roman State Religion and Imperial Policy of the First and Second Centuries A.D.
Adviser: Diana Kleiner
2005s, The Japanese Expressionist: Yorozu Tetsurgoro (1885-1927) and the Language of Modern Art”
Adviser: Mimi Yiengpruksawan”
http://www.yale.edu/arthistory.....tions.html
Good work someguy. Usually these claims tend to be from students who took an extension class and got a certificate. Somehow when the get back home,it becomes a degree. When I worked in ESL in San Francisco, the Brazilians would take business extension classes at Berkeley after ESL. They’d always tell me that they were going to get an MBA. I honestly don’t think they knew the difference.
I doubt Ms. Shin is ignorant of the difference between a certificate and a PhD. It’ll be interesting to see how she tries to pull this off. ABD?
How come that last dissertation on “The Japanese Expressionist” doesn’t have a candidate’s name beside it, though?
Ah, never mind. The thesis she claims to have written for completion of her degree in 2005 goes under a different title, and appears to be the basis of the allegations against her. Even the lefties at the Hankyoreh seem to be on the case:
The original thesis was published in book form by the University of Michigan in 1984 [link].
It never ceases to amaze me how people - in particular, people in the public eye - who forge their credentials can’t seem to anticipate the possibility getting busted somewhere down the line…
“It never ceases to amaze me how people - in particular, people in the public eye - who forge their credentials can’t seem to anticipate the possibility getting busted somewhere down the line…”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04.....mp;ei=5070
You’re not seeing the bigger picture: forging those documents was a work of art, in itself grand enough to confirm she is right for the post.
Two words: Suicide watch.
“The thesis she claims to have written for completion of her degree in 2005 goes under a different title”
I had already read the Hannie article, which is why I posted the list. Sorry I didn’t refer to it. I should have known better: my graduate degree is real.
You know, it took me a total of 5 minutes to find that info, but that’s only because I wasted 4:30 minutes trying to find a list of the students who graduated in 2005 (apparently, they don’t publish those online…I wouldn’t either since they make money off the transcripts and there’s the risk of identity theft).
There is still the possibility that the list has an error or that it does not include all the dissertations (last one listed is 2005s (summer)). Then again, she claims she graduated in May of 2005, which would be ‘2005s’, right?.
I also tried to find on the web any references to ‘Yale’ associated with the different possible romanizations of her name. I found nothing, so I reordered her name: first name last, last name first, etc. Still nothing.
I then searched for the full and partial title of her dissertation and the only thing that came up was the one written by Katia Samaltanos-Stenström, (1981) and one authored by Katia Samaltanos (1984, an admitted revision of 1981 dissertation by the same title). The only references to her name and the title of the dissertation are from news articles about the investigation.
So, based on the information that is available online and Yale’s own research on the matter, it appears that she never published or submitted her dissertation, but we’ll have to wait until Dongguk is done with their investigation to know that for sure. After all, the information available on the web isn’t always complete and Yale, despite being a fine school, isn’t above making mistakes.
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....30027.html
“Still, it is surprising that someone was able to fake their credentials and wield so much influence for a decade in the field of art, where expertise and artistic insight are essential.”
Actually, it’s not. They could have prevented this if they hadn’t been so eager to put her to work…and knowing what you’re doing always helps.
PS. Screening application forms for identity fraud was one of the things I did when I worked for the government, actually.
This kinda reminds me of the English hakwon teachers from Canada & Australia who were caught forging college degrees to work there and the stupid Korean hakwon owners that hired them.
oops. I didn’t read the title! Doh!
From the Korea Times:
“She claimed to have survived the 1995 Sampoong Department Store collapse after eight hours of confinement under broken concrete. She called it a traumatic experience that made her pursue good for the rest of her life, and recalled how things started to look easy after that.”
Maybe she meant to say the experience made her decide to pursue “the good life?” Obviously, when the concrete hit her head she realized how easy that could be accomplished by lying through her arse. Something tells she will be the next Korean falling star to experience a convenient “nervous breakdown.”
Creo: Are you sure the Sampoong experience is accurate as well? What’s next, her swim in the Han after the Seongsu Bridge collapsed gave her a greater appreciation for the still waters of Water Lilies?
Creo, the keyword in that quote is “claimed”.
http://news.independent.co.uk/.....765578.ece
About the article…it was written by Daniel Jeffreys who had his own little problem with the construct of truth. Guess it takes one to know one…
http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/media/features/5967/
http://search.ft.com/ftArticle.....0521005956
Maybe he and Ms. Shin can go bowling together.
“Still, it is surprising that someone was able to fake their credentials and wield so much influence for a decade in the field of art, where expertise and artistic insight are essential.”
Um, as long as you know whose arse to kiss, all is well. The Korean press is brimming with stories of Ms. Shin’s prowess at kowtowing to the powers-that-be in the Korean art world. ‘Specially if the said power went to Seoul National. Also she’s not bad at stealing credit — practically all of her shows were first conceived by someone else.
The Wolgan Chungang comes out tomorrow with a full interview with Ms. Shin’s mother and other relatives.