Pestilog

SCANDAL! brought to you by Sorin Antohi

Sorin Antohi was, until last Friday, the founding chair of the history department at CEU. He has a huge legacy here, and is the pet of countless administrators, students, and professors. He is incredibly popular here and regarded in very high faith.

Then, the whole university got this e mail from the University president today:

To: Members of the CEU Community


On Friday, 20 October 2006 a Romanian newspaper published an article indicating that Sorin Antohi does not have a Ph.D. degree, although he mentions in his c.v. that he possesses one. We learned about this article from Sorin Antohi himself who, in an e-mail letter sent on the same day, acknowledged that the article was true and also submitted his resignation from CEU. The resignation was accepted (see acceptance letter attached). We have clarified in two communiqués that students who had Sorin Antohi as their Ph.D. supervisor should not fear negative consequences regarding the validity of their diplomas (the two communiqués are attached).

Yehuda Elkana

And it came with this attachment:

20 October 2006

Attn: Sorin Antohi

Dear Sorin,

Having received your letter dated October 20, 2006, with sadness and

regret, I hereby accept your resignation from all your positions at

CEU as from today.

The termination of your employment contract will be settled

following the standard CEU protocol for resignation.

Based on the fact you disclosed in your letter, CEU does not plan to

take any legal actions against you.

My best personal wishes for the future.

Your Yehuda

CC: Executive Committee

This is the explanation, that keeps getting posted and deleted and posted and deleted from his wikipedia entry. Please don't miss the part about his apparently fabricated publications. Good gravy:

In a 2006 open letter published in the Bucharest-based 22 review, Mr. Antohi admitted to having collaborated with the communist secret intelligence service, the notorious Securitate, during the 1970s and the 1980s. In that capacity, he secretly reported information damaging to the lives of many of his close friends.
		+
		+		On 20 October 2006, the Romanian press reported that representatives of the Romanian Ministry of Education discovered that Mr. Antohi never defended his doctoral thesis in the country. Antohi's CEU website claims that he got his doctoral degree in 1995 from the Faculty of History, University Al. Ioan Cuza of Iasi. In fact, Mr. Antohi was expelled in 2000 from the doctoral program. The website also lists among his books some titles published by Polirom press. Journalists from the "Ziua de Iasi" daily were unable to locate any of those volumes.

Think it ends here? NEVER!

The wiki continues:

In a 2006 open letter published in the Bucharest-based 22 review, Mr. Antohi admitted to having collaborated with the communist secret intelligence service, the notorious Securitate, during the 1970s and the 1980s. In that capacity, he secretly reported information damaging to the lives of many of his close friends.

Wow.
I mean, just, wow.
Makes me think that missing that deadline for my for my social inquiry paper by a few days isn't such a big deal after all.

Labels: Antohi, CEU, grad school

posted by Veruka2 @ 6:39 PM