I am interested in frauds and falsifications. There was a novelist who claimed to be of Cuban origin and turned out to be from Detroit. There is a white woman GWU professor from suburban Kansas City who just outed herself as such, after having claimed to be a Latina from the Bronx. She basically cancelled herself, since apparently she was about to be outed by others.
Unlike gender, racial and ethnic identity cannot be entirely performative. Black face is so taboo that someone could be cancelled simply for questioning why it is taboo, or for comparing it to performative notions of gender identity.
In the case of Jessica Krug, the most recent case, her false claim to be from the Barrio will now mean that her scholarship will also be under a cloud of suspicion. If her scholarship is sound, this will be unfortunate, because scholarship does not depend on the ethnic identity of the scholar.
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Duke UP. https://www.dukeupress.edu/fugitive-modernities
It seems that this study is able to do a lot despite the dearth of documentation. And, it's about creating identities.
I don't have access to the book. It will be interesting if people start looking to see how genuine her research is. If she turns out to be a good scholar than it is a shame that she had to muddy the waters by claiming to be someone else.
They let you read the intro for free from that link. The Duke editors and readers apparently thought it was all right. And she had tenure in a place that would ask for serious outside letters on research, and other peer reviewed publications. Most likely decent, or as decent as anyone's.
Remember, others fake identities in less egregious ways. How many female Spanish professors use their husbands' names to appear to be native speakers and thus get job interviews, from committees that cared about that? I've known quite a few. Then there was my colleague whose mother was from Spain, father U.S., and at some point she started using her mother's maiden name and saying she was Chicana/U.S. Latina, and if anyone asked it was her mother's name and so she was half Spanish and being raised in Calif. felt Chicana/Latina.
You can also read the acknowledgments from that link. Guardian quotes from these:
(Quotation) In Krug’s book Fugitive Modernities, published before the revelations, she paid tribute to her apparently invented past in the acknowledgment section. She wrote: “My ancestors, unknown, unnamed, who bled life into a future they had no reason to believe could or should exist. My brother, the fastest, the smartest, the most charming of us all. Those whose names I cannot say for their own safety, whether in my barrio, in Angola, or in Brazil.” (End quotation)
And now I've checked the site, and the acknowledgments don't say anything like that in the PDF they have up there. At least not now.
More: https://www.thecut.com/2020/09/students-on-fake-black-professor-jessica-krugs-classes.html#comments
The Guardian didn't make up that quote. it is in her acknowledgments.
https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-1-4780-0154-6_601.pdf
AND it seems her Facebook had a PayPal page it would get to you somehow if you shared things she wrote or did, saying you owed her because you were benefiting from the work of an unremunerated woman of color.
Acknowledgments, I see -- although that's a different page, it's more like blurb page, the one called Acknowledgments is further ahead
...and it seems there are a few other cases lately, of various types, it's very interesting
There's also this:
"It is a love letter for my siblings in solitary, from Rikers to San Quentin, for my cousins being held on gang charges, for my femmes turning tricks."
She is from Johnson Coutny, KS, where many of my students are from. In fact, she went to school at KU as an undergrad before doctoral work in Madison.
It is an interesting case, because apparently her story of her origins took several shapes over her career. She was first North African, then US African American, then Boricua from the Bronx.
Right, so she's sort of a universal soldier
But I would say scholarship DOES often depend on the ethnic identity, and also experience of the author. It doesn't have to, but it is often informed by identities and experiences. And inspired by personal interests, even if it ends up being some very objective-type study. What interests me about the book in relation to her is that it's about finding evidence for a consciousness that can't be found in archives (or something like this). Demonstrating the existence and consistency of an insurgent identity that has some homogeneity across continents but not one language, and not a lot of direct archival evidence. I'm sure what she is talking about is real and true but I would say her interest in this particular kind of problem is personal and in a way parallels the conjuring up of a self
Right. Because I know in my case that my books are very much informed by who exactly I am and my particular relation to the subject-matter. Even the fact that I studied French first and then switched to Spanish in college influenced my particular path. I am that guy, that exact guy I am, the study abroad experience, and moving from not having my work accepted in Spain at all to being well-known there in a few small niches.
Krug's book seems like a fiction inseparable from her forged identity. The fact her story about herself has been in flux, unstable, probably made her discovery all the more inevitable, but it is a part of the novelistic aspect. I read her introduction and it seemed paper thin to me, in the sense of not being about anything in particular I could put my finger on.
Yes, this is what I think about the introduction too -- although notice all the incredibly positive reviews the book got, from people with good reputations, in good journals
I know how long it takes to be a specialist in something. To really know about something well. I think there must be some kind of brilliant manic energy behind such an elaborate charade with so many varied facets to it. I'm going to dig a little deeper as time permits.
You're right -- there's a lot more to it than just passing as something more convenient...
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