You'll find it here. He's the fraud who lied his way into Harvard. Here is the description of his "book" (supposedly) under review at Harvard University Press:
The Mapping of an Ideological Demesne
– Under review with Harvard University Press 2008-2009
The massive proliferation, from the fifteenth through the seventeenth century, of technologies for measuring, projecting, and organizing geographical and social space produced in the European cultural imaginary an intense and widespread interest in visualizing this world and alternative worlds. As the new century and the Stuart era developed, poets and dramatists mediated this transformation in the form of spatial tropes and models of the nation. I examine the geographical tropes by which Tudor and Stuart writers created poetic landscapes as a mode of engagement with the structures of power, kingship, property, and the market. Accordingly, each of the texts that I examine betrays an awareness of writing as a spatial activity and space as a scripted category. The critical topographies that these writers created are maps of ideology, figural territories within which social conflict and political antagonism are put into play.
I've read worse. How you react to that description is a Rorschach test of sorts, especially if you are not thinking it is fraudulent. Here is a TNR post on Wheeler. Here is a Princeton University Press post about Wheeler and the book he claimed to have under contract with them, to be co-authored with Marc Shell, a very well-read scholar.
Why are none of the sources reporting how well he actually did at Harvard and elsewhere? Isn't that an interesting question? How much would the world differ if Harvard reserved a fifth of its entering class for those individuals who showed the most talent for fraud? I don't mean that question in a cynical light, it is one genuine way of trying to think about how education adds value to labor market outcomes.
A talent for BS is certainly a valuable skill in life, more valuable than a lot of things people (honestly) list on their resume.
I’m sure this description is highly accurate if I could figure out what the noun form of “imaginary” is supposed to mean.
Top tier schools want to maintain their prestige, part of which is derived from being highly selective. They also want to maximize the prestige/donations from graduates.
“Space as a scripted category”? WTF? Are we sure this guy isn’t a performance artist?
boston globe reports that he actually got “some A’s, a few B’s, and a D”. and that his prize-winning papers were plagiarized from a dissertation. http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/05/18/ex_harvard_student_accused_of_living_a_lie/?page=2
“How much would the world differ if Harvard reserved a fifth of its entering class for those individuals who showed the most talent for fraud?” They’re going to reduce it to just 20%? That’s harsh.
Harvard could have called somebody. But, why bother when the legal system gots your back.
Dearieme—C.O.D. (comment of the day) award.
“if Harvard reserved a fifth of its entering class for those individuals who showed the most talent for fraud?”
You mean, they should cut down the Fraud Quota from a quarter? But, then, where would the I-Banks find recruits?
Seems like all they would have to do to increase their Prestige would be to stop allowing Legacy students preferred admission.
Steve Sailer writes:
By the way, I am told that the cost of getting your kid off the Harvard waiting list and into Harvard is a $5 million donation. Fortunately, the taxpayers refund a good chunk of that to you.
Me: I think you’re confusing taxpayers and tax collectors. It’s the U.S. Treasury that refunds a good chunk.
How could he lie about his SAT? In my day, I remember having to pay the company that administered the test to send the results to the colleges I was applying to. The main reason I only applied to a few colleges was it cost real money for me to do so.
Also, did he actually take any language besides French? I’ve studied those languages, but mainly in order to read old religious texts. What was he doing? They don’t seem to have any relation to his studies.
If he did study Old Persian at Harvard, I envy him. The instructor might well have been P. Oktor Skjærvø. If you’re interested in this language, go here:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/
You will find an unbelievable free resource:
Introductory Texts:
Languages:
* Introduction to Young Avestan by P. Oktor Skjærvø
* Introduction to Old Avestan by P. Oktor Skjærvø
* Introduction to Old Persian by P. Oktor Skjærvø
* Introduction to Manichaean Sogdian by P. Oktor Skjærvø
* Sorani Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings by W. M. Thackston
* Kurmanji Kurdish: A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings by W. M. Thackston
Religions:
* Introduction to Zoroastrianism by P. Oktor Skjærvø
* Introduction to Manicheism by P. Oktor Skjærvø
For Classical Armenian, go here:
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/armol-0-X.html
1. Matthew 5:1-16
2. Moses of Khoren’s History, Book II, Chapter 30
3. Faustos Buzand’s The History of Armenia, Book IV, Chapter 5
4. Koriwn’s The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Teacher Mesrop, Books V and VI
5. Yeznik of Kolb’s Against the Heresy of Sects, Chapter 12
Options:
* Show full Table of Contents with Grammar Points index.
* Open a Master Glossary window for these Armenian texts.
* Open a Base Form Dictionary window for these Armenian texts.
* Open an English Meaning Index window for these Armenian texts
* Go to selected annotated bibliography.
* Switch to Unicode 2.0 character set (Roman letters with combining diacritics), or
* switch to non-Unicode character set (Roman letters with few diacritics).
The resources available free online are astounding.
Also, I highly recommend all of Wheeler Thackston’s grammars.
“There was a story in the news recently about how children who lie grow up to be successful. Or so Dr. Kang Lee, successful director of the Institute of Child Study at the University of Toronto, would have us believe.”
And you trust him?
Allowing the best frauds into Harvard, especially ones that can write “Po-Mo.”
It’s a great idea.
They would have no problem getting jobs at Goldman Sachs or in Ethnic Studies programs.
It’s the lesson of Stephen Glass all over again. The key to successful lying is telling people what they want to believe.
What Marilee Jones is doing these days:
http://www.marileejones.com/
She’s written a book about admissions and runs a consulting agency about same.
The question is, will young Mr. Wheeler capitalize on his transgressions?
I heard a rumor that the Blumenthal campaign hired him.
Princeton took their post down. I wonder what it said.
Ron Byrnes: Sorry, the winning comment goes to anonymous at 1:23.
He could work for the Federal Reserve, or go into politics. Psychology or any group help. We could use a new cult, the Scientology is getting long in the tooth.
GM accounting, AIG, if he starts now he can be the Madoff of 2039.
There’s piles he can do. There are thousands of municipal governments that would just swoon over his claptrap. Financial mis adviser seems fitting
Can someone explain why Adam Wheeler does NOT deserve to be at Harvard and one of these affirmative action enrollees does?
No, I can’t think of any reason why a plagiarizing fraudster does not deserve to be at Harvard. Not one. Meanwhile, you probably think that Barack Obama was an affirmative action admission to Harvard Law, and I bet the admissions office is still kicking themselves over that call.
I don’t see why people think this guy is particularly smart. His actions seem incredibly pathetic — it’s not like he snuck into Harvard and then parlayed that into success, he just kept on committing fraud until he got caught.
Toek:
Harvard moved from its 15.0 scale to a 4.0 scale about 7-8 years ago. A 4.0 is very rare; 3.9 is not.
haha, nice dig steve
The PUP link doesn’t work – did they scrub the post? The URL makes it sound more interesting than the bland note they have up now.
“Wheeler won two Harvard writing prizes using a submission plagiarized nearly word for word from a dissertation by a Cornell University graduate student, according to court documents.”
Should we take this as a blind taste test? That a (mere – gasp) Cornell Student is better than any Harvard student? OK, the Cornell student was a graduate, but still…
He should have applied to work as a ghostwriter for Tribe or DKG. That would have been the piece de resistance of his life as performance art.
They should give Mr. Wheeler the Andrei Shleifer Award for Creativity in Seeing His Opportunities and Taking Them. Larry Summers could come up from Washington to present it.
The obvious solution to the problem of Undocumented Studiers is to legalize all of them. If the demand for Harvard educations exceeds the supply, then Harvard should simply increase its class size until every person in the world who wants to be Harvard student is one. Problem solved!
Harvard must grant Mr. Wheeler amnesty and allow family reunification, admitting all the other budding con-men in his extended family. Think of the children!
Speaking of children, any children he has fathered while at Harvard should be given, by current interpretation of the 14th Amendment, birthright admission to Harvard.
Mr. Wheeler didn’t cross Harvard Yard. Harvard Yard crossed him.
If Harvard gets 14 applications for every one it accepts, then it’s Harvard’s fault for not letting in 14 times as many students.
I’m sure the President’s Aunt Zeituni, a long-time resident of Boston, could offer the victim some winning legal advice.
As for not letting him have scholarships, wasn’t that declared unconstitutional when Prop. 187 was stricken down by the courts?
I don’t see what Harvard is all upset over. It’s not like Mr. Wheeler did something really bad, like send a private email to a few friends expressing an open mind on a scientific controversy.
The best frauds are those that get in. They spend forever combing their resumes, never taking chances in their pre-college coursework, and generally playing the game.
I know I’m over a month late, but Popeye’s comment on page 2 deserves more appreciation. It made me laugh pretty damn hard.
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