Vienna furore: Bogdan Roscic is accused of plagiarism

The designated director of the Vienna State Opera has been accused of taking parts of his university dissertation from another writer, whom he failed to acknowledge.

The University of Vienna has been notified by an investigator that sections of Roscic’s paper appear to be taken from a doctoral thesis on Theodor Adorno by a Marxist activist, Peter Decker.

Roscic, 52, has issued a statement to the Austrian press agency: ‘I met Mr. Decker personally 35 years ago, worked with him on different cultural-scientific topics and learned from him the decisive points about Critical Theory… I cannot reconstruct the details after 30 years. I am in touch with the University of Vienna…’

The minister of culture, Thomas Drozda, who appointed Roscic controversially to the Vienna Opera, acknowledges that he has been made aware of the accusation.

This could have serious consequences.

More here.