OT: Cassidy and Academic malpractice

[Amy West]

Fabulous piece on Cassidy, Grant.
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/grantbarrett/humdinger_of_a_bad_irish_scholar/

Having seen Cassidy's signature block at the end of his archived
posting on "big onion," I'm wondering if there's a much larger
criticism of Cassidy's work other than, as Grant said, the work being
"unreliable and not to be trusted." With his position as a professor
of Irish Studies, should we be holding him to an even *higher*
standard even though this is not an academic work? If so, would this
be an instance of not academic fraud but *malpractice*? That is, we
know what academics can and should do: look for tangible evidence,
present points against, think and read critically, attempt to be
objective and rational. He not only fails to do this, but engages in
superficial thinking using superficial connections/resemblances, a
lack of concrete evidence, with an agenda and not only a lack of
recognition of counterarguments and other positions but derisive
dismissal of them: things I expect more from my freshmen than a
professional academic. And those are things I would not tolerate from
my freshmen.

---Amy West

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