A KPU professor is denying allegations of plagiarism after the university’s bookstore suspended the sale of his course textbooks.
On Dec. 7, the KPU bookstore stopped selling three sociology textbooks and started issuing full refunds to students who purchased them after claims that the author of the books, Dr. Charles Quist-Adade, a KPU sociology instructor, used plagiarized content.
Quist-Adade denies the claims, saying his accusers are “wrong” and “ill-formed.”
“I’m struggling under the circumstances of false allegations. It’s affecting me and my reputation, and is also affecting me emotionally and psychologically,” said Quist-Adade, adding that he is seeking legal advice from his lawyer.
He told the Richmond News he was never contacted by the Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) about his textbooks, and was only made aware of the media release after a former student reached out to him.
“I wasn’t given a chance to explain the situation and wasn’t told anything. No one filed any complaints against me either.”
According to KSA’s release on Nov. 28, the three textbooks, From the Local to the Global, The Local-Global Nexus of Social Justice and Race, Racism and Anti-Racism: A Critical Constructivist Perspective, were found to have contained “large passages taken near-verbatim and without appropriate citation from other texts, lectures and websites.”
Moreover, the books which were published in 2019, are listed as required reading for two sociology classes in the upcoming January semester.
“Students at KPU, and wherever else these books are found, should take great care in citing from them in case they be made accessories to academic dishonesty,” said Sarah Strachan, KSA’s vice-president of university affairs.
A KPU spokesperson told the News in an email “an allegation of plagiarism is serious,” and the university will go through an “immediate investigation of the claims put forward by the Kwantlen Student Association.”
“KPU is committed to academic integrity, expectations of which are outlined in the university policy.”
The investigation will continue until the first day of classes in January.
