Hmmm. Bear with me, for those who can be arsed.
My first degree was in history, probably not uncommon on this board (or in this profession). For my dissertation I wrote about a very very specific bit of history, in fact one very specific and short lived intelligence committee's view on that bit of history, and how that did or could or should have influenced people at the time. I remember my tutor at the time telling me it would be a great topic as it was basically virgin territory, and I specifically remember that it was my idea.
On a whim, I googled that committee just now, having not thought about it in a long time and one of the first hits is a journal article on the exact same committee, set of facts and (from the description) advancing the same argument as mine. It's based on the dissertation of someone taught by my old tutor (who moved the same year I graduated), who is specifically thanked for their help, and is dated three years after my paper was submitted.
Now I'll be the first to admit I fvkced around at Uni and basically scraped a 2:1 having to play catch up to some shocking marks in my second year, and it is a bit of a regret of mine (and probably most people tbh) that I didn't put more effort into that module and that dissertation - I liked the tutor and loved the subject. This guy has managed to get himself published in a journal so has probably turned in a far more polished bit of work than I did or likely could, but still, I can't help but feel a bit fvcked off here.
It *feels* like my professor has fed my idea to another of his students (who has then done a better job with it). I do get that the whole point of history and historiography is that you can write a hundred different ways about the same thing, but still. I'm feeling a bit fvcked off here.
Ho hom.
The TLDR is that I should have worked harder at Uni.
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Don’t most professors have a pet subject they try and persuade someone to use as a dissertation subject every year? On my masters one lecturer was renowned for talking someone into writing a dissertation on a horrible subject every year.
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I found a further paper written a few years later again on my committee, this one written by a quite distinguished military historian and colleague of my old prof.
Suspect this is more to do with it being a quite small (in terms of time and number of people specialisms in it) bit of history.
I think I’m basically just regretting not carrying on doing the one thing that actually came naturally to me (Laz shout)
Perhaps not unrelated to the subject and contents of clergs’ midlife crisis thread.
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Tbh I’ve no idea, I’d be hard pushed to find it, and it was submitted in hard copy. The second one was at least at a different uni, so if he did see it, he’d have to have got a copy from the tutor and I’m not sure it was actually good enough for him to take it from one place to the other.
I am tempted to pay $40 to download the article though.
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sue them. sue them all.
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I know what you mean. I did a project on the Docklands for my GCSE geography and got 18/20.
2 years later (for the same teacher) my sister copied my project word for word (she even cut the pictures and graphs and maps out of my project and stuck them in her own) and got 19/20.
4 years after that my other sister did the same thing and got 20/20.
Lazy plagiarising bitches.
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What Sails said. And it's perhaps not surprising that two historians looking at the same event might draw similar conclusions from it, particularly if they're guided by the same tutor.
You'll either be spending $40 on confirmation that this person has written a thesis that is different from (and apparently better than) yours, or you'll be spending $40 for your own work, albeit apparently an improved version. Neither sounds particularly palatable. If I were you I'd just let it slide and spend the $40 on a beer for your wise RoF buddies (we can all share one or something).
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On the basis it has taken 20 odd years for me to be arsed enough to even give any thought to the issue (and by Christ I was procrastinating hard yesterday) I think I will let it slide.
Have a rof beer on me spotty.
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Isn't everything done as a student/scholar the intellectual property of the institution?
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Heh@ Wang's sisters. Grade inflation laid bare.
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It's hardly the cure for Hep B is it? Might as well sue the school for breach of unregistered design right because some kid in the year below copied your CD rack in woodworking?
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It does happen. Someone in my degree year was super bright, he got an off the scale first. The professor talked him into staying on for a PhD, and suggested the topic. I wonder why. Engineering, not history.
The rest of us disappeared off into the grubby world of commerce.
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