Professor Van Ry

Mustapha Marrouchi’s extensive body of work includes books, peer-reviewed articles, and online essays; literary criticism and sociocultural analysis; commentary and memoir. It’s a diverse portfolio, but if you track it closely enough, a through line emerges: Passages from other authors regularly appear, nearly verbatim, without attribution.

With a sample size so large, and the echoes of other writers so resonant, his work provides a rare glimpse into the modus operandi of a scholar who fails to credit his sources. Some passages seem noteworthy for their brazenness; others just come across as kind of odd. Here’s a short guide to some of the most striking examples:

Bringing Out the Big Guns

Browse Mr. Marrouchi’s published work, and you’ll find turns of phrase drawn from of a Murderers’ Row of writers, critics, and scholars: Salman Rushdie. Colm Tóibín. Edward Said. Louis Menand. Terry Eagleton and John Updike—more on them later. Slavoj Zizek. (Of course, Slavoj Zizek.) Here’s one of many Zizek parallels: <Read more.>

Via Brock Read, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Also related: UNLV Professor Is Investigated for Career-Spanning Plagiarism.