Thursday, September 18, 2008

Resume Padding

Weird. I met her a couple of times. Just not something you can get away with in academia, at least not once you get caught anyway.

Lan-Lan Wang has had a distinguished career in academic dance. She’s founded dance companies. She was one of the first American modern dancers to perform in China after the Cultural Revolution, and she promoted numerous exchanges with China. She won grants from top foundations. She taught at the University of Iowa and the University of California at Los Angeles and, since 1994, at Connecticut College, serving for much of that time as department chair. She may never have earned a degree — although she claimed two.

And what’s certain is that she did not earn either of the two degrees she claimed — a bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Iowa. As a result, she quit her position as professor and interim chair, Connecticut College announced Monday.