Cambridge’s youngest Black professor is under attack. Campaigners aren’t having it
Jason Arday is being targeted by persistent, unfounded plagiarism allegations, prompting warnings about the wider impact on aspiring Black and brown leaders
Academics, politicians and activists have rallied behind Professor Jason Arday over persistent plagiarism allegations that investigations found had no basis.
Professor Arday, who became the youngest Black professor in the University of Cambridge’s history, is being supported by dozens of public figures through a Good Law Project campaign.
The campaign follows claims that the academic, 41, plagiarised parts of several published papers.
According to organisers, the allegations that he ripped off another academic’s work in his dissertation were referred to two universities, both of which investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, who’s also backing the campaign, told Black Current News: “The smear campaign against Professor Jason Arday is as transparent as it is disgraceful.
“False and baseless allegations are being weaponised to discredit and delegitimise a brilliant, gifted, autistic, young Black British man whose success threatens those invested in deciding who gets to occupy spaces of power, prestige and intellectual authority.
“I see the playbook. I reject the smear. Professor Jason Arday has my full support and unequivocal solidarity.”
Signatories accuse sections of the rightwing media of continuing to target Professor Arday despite the findings, warning that the coverage could damage his career and have wider consequences for Black academics.
Among those backing the campaign are Lord Simon Woolley, Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, Professor Kehinde Andrews, Lady Phyll, Professor Robert Beckford, Lord Paul Boateng, John McDonnell MP, Misan Harriman, Colin Salmon and Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP.
An accompanying letter calls on universities to defend academic freedom and confront racism, including what signatories describe as persistent attempts to discredit exceptional Black academics.
“Universities must ensure that excellence is protected and that every scholar is judged on the merit of their work, not the colour of their skin,” it reads.
“This latest smear campaign and the spread of misinformation are deeply alarming – not only because of the impact on one individual, but because of the message they send to aspiring Black and brown young people who seek to attain positions of leadership.”
Professor Arday’s memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, will be published by Simon & Schuster on 11 August and charts a life marked by “improbable triumphs and heart-breaking setbacks”.
The academic was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder aged three. He did not speak until he was 11 or learn to read and write until his late teens, leaving school with two GCSEs in PE and textiles.
He later earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s and a PhD, and worked at several UK universities before becoming professor of sociology of education at Cambridge in 2023.
Read more about the campaign here.
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