Washington: This is indeed an interesting story. A history professor at the George Washington University here has resigned. All through her career the history professor had posed as a Black woman while being white. She was never caught or exposed, till she confessed the fact herself.
Jessica Krug ‘has resigned her position, effective immediately,’ the university announced on Twitter. “Her classes for this semester will be taught by other faculty members, and students in those courses will receive additional information this week.”
Krug taught African-American history and specialised in issues of African culture and diaspora. She admitted last week in a blog post that she had presented herself as Afro Caribbean from New York. However, she was not that. She is in fact a white Jewish woman from suburban Kansas City. Krug expressed deep remorse and blamed her years-long deception on ‘unaddressed mental health demons’ dating back to childhood.
Krug has not spoken publicly since the blog post and did not respond to a request for comment. Her revelation stoked an online storm of criticism as well as a debate about the validity of her scholarly body of work.
‘Duke University Press’, which published Krug’s 2018 book Fugitive Modernities, announced proceeds from the book would be routed to a fund. It is a ‘fund that will support the work of Black and Latin scholars’.
Gisela Fosado, editorial director for Duke University Press, wrote an online statement on the issue. “Those of us who are connected to Krug and her scholarship, and especially those of us who are people of colour, are grappling with several layers of anger and hurt,” Fosado wrote.
Fosado stated that she was one of the many people who were personally deceived by Krug over the years. She said Krug insisted that her last named was actually pronounced ‘Cruz’. Krug’s long-term identity fraud, ‘took funding and other opportunities that were earmarked for non-white scholars,’ Fosado stated.
“Krug’s scholarship may not have ever existed without the funding that was inseparable from her two decades of lies,” Fosado added.