American University Of Malta Lecturer’s Plagiarism Skeletons Come Back To Haunt Him
A veteran humanities lecturer at the American University of Malta has been forced to resign after his history plagiarising film critics was unearthed.
Robert Cardullo, a Yale graduate who had previously lectured at the University of Michigan and the Izmir University of Economics, was one of several new lecturers hired by the AUM last month after it purged practically its entirely academic staff.
The lecturer sackings capped a torrid inaugural semester for the AUM, which saw around ten of its original batch of 25 students drop out and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat warn it that it would not be allowed to build a second campus at Zonqor Point unless its student numbers rise significantly.
The AUM confirmed with Lovin Malta that Cardullo has tendered his resignation but gave no reasons why. However, informed sources told this website that Provost John Ryder had hauled Cardullo into his office after finding out about his plagiarism history and gave him a stark choice – resignation or the sack.
A quick Google search is enough to reveal Cardullo’s plagiarism history, most recently in 2015 when he published a posthumous collection of writings by the famous American film critic Stanley Kauffmann.
American University of Malta Provost John Ryder
Although Cardullo had told his publishers that he had permission from Kauffmann’s estate to publish the book, the estate ended up suing the publishers and insisting such permission was never granted. The estate’s lawsuit against the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) alleges that Cardullo’s letter claiming he had rights to Kauffmann’s work was actually a forgery. Rochester paper Democrat and Chronicle reported that Cardullo then fled to Finland but admitted his guilt in an email to the lawyers of Kauffmann’s estate.
“Let me declare that I am fully guilty of all the charges against me and that RIT Press was duped by me in this affair,” Cardullo allegedly said. “I am guessing that a judgment will be found against me … If so, all that I can tell you is that my resources are extremely limited and I hope that the court takes this into account. I make all of these statements not to exonerate myself but to absolve RIT Press of most of its responsibility in this matter. I knew Kauffmann and studied with him; if he were here, I think he would be proud of what I have done. My editions of his work speak for themselves, but, unfortunately, I don’t think they will be allowed to speak at trial.”
This wasn’t Cardullo’s first major offence either. In 2008, his ‘interview’ with late film director Eric Rohmer was pulled from a French academic journal after it emerged that he had plagiarised the entire interview from another article. Two years later, The New Yorker magazine reported that an “interview” Cardullo had conducted with French director Francois Truffaut in the 1980s was identical to other interviews Truffaut had given before his death.
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