Peter Boghossian, a professor of philosophy at Portland State University, may potentially face sanctions from his university for his work on a series of hoax research papers designed to show the flaws in the academic journal industry.
Professor Peter Boghossian led a team of academics set out on exposing certain far-left academics disciplines for their corruption and bigotry. The group conned several academic journals into publishing nonsense research papers on topics ranging from “dog rape culture” to an anti-male version of Mein Kampf.
The stunt received praise from both sides of the political spectrum. However, administrators at Portland State University did not love the hoax papers. Writing to Boghossian, Mark McLellan, the vice president for research and graduate studies, said that Boghossian will be restricted from participating in research at Portland State until he publicly recognizes the errors he made by conducting the hoax exercise.
Your actions clearly illustrate a lack of understanding of the rules and regulations involved in human subjects research. Portland State University assures all sponsors including state and federal governments that we will ensure compliance in human subjects research. Therefore, I hereby direct that you cease any current or planned human subjects research that has no submitted IRB protocol. I further direct that no sponsored research proposal or program will be approved by Portland State University where you are a principal investigator, collaborator or contributor in any substantial manner until and unless you show satisfactory evidence of completing, understanding and agree to the principles of a human subjects research training to be identified and proctored by the Assistant Vice President for Research Administration, Dawn Boatman. Please contact her office for details regarding the training.
Now, according to a report from The College Fix, students at Portland State are rallying behind Boghossian. Numerous students have come out in support of Boghossian and the hoax papers. Many students have suggested that the hoax acted as a healthy check on the peer review system, ensuring that certain fields haven’t become so radical that they can’t tolerate even listening to dissenting opinions.
We need people who are willing to kick the beehive, when something isn’t working how it should be. … He hasn’t hurt anybody. It does say something about PSU when they are going after Peter, of all people. We need black sheep at the universities, otherwise there’s just a homogenous set of ideas.
The other two academics behind the hoax papers are not currently associated with universities or colleges. As a result, their work on the project has not directly jeopardized their careers. Boghossian, on the other hand, has a fight ahead of him at Portland State University.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.
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