Joana D'arc Félix De Souza Fake Harvard Degree

Overview

Joana D'arc Félix de Souza is a Brazilian Chemistry Professor who claimed to have a postdoctoral degree from Harvard University. In May 2019, according to the tabloid O Estado de S.Paulo, the diploma presented by her was fake. The Fake Harvard Degree Controversy then became a trending topic on the internet as the Brazilian was gaining visibility in the press and in lectures such as TED for telling a story of overcoming difficulties. Years later, around June 2023, interviews and other videos of Joana started to be used as reaction memes on Twitter, with people using the content to comment on personal stories about lying or being deceptive.

Background

Joana D'arc Félix De Souza (shown below) is a Brazilian professor and scientist at the State Technical School (ETEC) Prof. Carmelino Corrêa Júnior, in Franca, Brazil. Her first appearance in the media occurred on May 23rd, 2017, in which the website G1^[1] told the story of her achievements and career. During one moment in the interview, Joana mentioned an invitation to do a post-doctorate at Harvard University, in the U.S.

On October 4th, 2018, Joana D'arc presented a TED lecture at TEDxSãoPaulo titled "The power to challenge the no," talking about the difficulties and barriers of prejudice in her life trajectory. The video was uploaded on the official Ted Talks YouTube^[2] channel shortly after, which garnered over 821,000 views and 41,000 likes in five years (shown below).

Developments

Fake Harvard Degree Scandal

On May 14th, 2019, the Brazilian tabloid O Estado de S.Paulo^[3] revealed Joana D'Arc Félix de Sousa used a fake Harvard University diploma. The article also reported that the Brazilian did not enter college at the age of 14, as she would claim in several interviews. The tabloid's Facebook post about the story (shown below) garnered over 16,000 likes and 8,100 shares in four years.

Online Reactions

Online, the fake Harvard degree controversy received a significant amount of coverage from tabloids and media outlets in May 2019. For example, journalist and Twitter user @pedromeletti^[4] posted a clip of an interview with Joana D'Arc explaining the fake diploma. The tweet (shown below) garnered over 1,000 likes and 390 retweets in four years.

Joana D'Arc Reaction Memes

On June 8th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user @iagogracinha resurfaced the story of the Brazilian on the platform by posting a picture of Joana D'Arc Félix with the caption in Portuguese "I think about this diva a lot." The post (shown below) garnered over 21,300 likes and 1,300 retweets in a month.

A few days later, on June 10th, Twitter^[6] user @biIIieraycyrus posted a thread of short clips featuring Joana D'Arc Félix's interviews and the TED talk. The clips then started to be used as reaction meme videos, as people shared personal stories about moments they had to lie or deceive someone.

For example, Twitter^[7] user @matheusrmd quoted a video of Joana with the caption "my advisor told me to read a book and I just saw an explanation of it on YouTube." The post (shown below), uploaded on July 8th, 2023, garnered over 6,500 likes and 450 retweets in four days.

On July 9th, 2023, Twitter^[8] user @cafezinhobruno posted a photoshopped image featuring other Brazilian celebrities known for lying, like the Grávida De Taubaté fake pregnant lady. The post (shown below) was paired with the caption "I would a lot to participate in this round table of sincere conversation," garnering over 33,900 likes and 5,000 retweets in three days.

Notable Examples

Search interest

External References