Jason Arday at the time of his appointment to a professorship at Cambridge University in 2023. They point to concerns over the appointment committee for Arday’s post, and to previous disputes within the university’s faculty of education where Arday was based.Priyamvada Gopal, professor of postcolonial studies at Cambridge’s English faculty and one of the group organising the letter, said: “An independent investigation must scrutinise how such an early-career appointment to a very senior and prestigious professorial chair was made and what both the faculty of education and university management may have got very badly wrong.”She added: “Whatever the results of any investigation, the university bears no little responsibility for the grotesque racism which this whole business has unleashed, and for the harm done both to the individual in the line of fire, to Black academics as a group, and the broader field of critical race studies.“This requires accountability now from those responsible, not a cover-up.”Other academics who spoke to the Guardian said they had been surprised by Arday’s appointment in 2023, with one sociologist admitting to never having heard of Arday before: “When it was announced I looked for his body of work, and it was disappointing to say the least.”Gopal said Cambridge had been too tempted to “cut corners on the hard work of fostering equality and inclusion” by opting for a media-friendly appointment.“The extent to which this appointment was paraded in the media by the university … raises questions about whether the university sought public kudos for itself rather than teaching and research from this appointment.“It is highly unusual, to say the least, to appoint such an early-career academic to a very senior post,” Gopal said.“Academic misconduct also needs more robust and transparent procedures in place, as more than one case at Cambridge indicates.“The university must also pay attention to the consequences of putting young people of colour in highly visible places to carry the burden of representation before they are ready to withstand scrutiny.”Playbooks, plagiarism and a pig’s head: new claims surrounding a star Cambridge professorRead moreWhen the controversy first erupted, the university briefed journalists that it stood by its appointment process, and publicly defended Arday as “the victim of a vile campaign” to discredit him.But on Wednesday night the university abruptly announced that it would open a fresh investigation after receiving “new information” about his qualifications and appointments.Shortly afterwards Arday said he would resign, adding: “I no longer wish to feel as though I am living under a constant spotlight, where every aspect of my life is subject to public examination and judgment.”The university and other organisations have since distanced themselves from Arday by deleting webpages and excising references, which one academic described as “wiping away the traces”.Jesus College, Cambridge, and the university’s faculty of education have taken down Arday’s staff profiles.Arday had signed up to speakers’ bureaus and, since his Cambridge appointment, has addressed a number of commercial organisations, including the annual conference of the Association of British Insurers in 2025.Simon & Schuster’s speakers bureau lists Arday as “an internationally sought-after speaker for industry conferences, corporate events, university lectures, and more, and has travelled across the United States for speaking engagements”.In 2024 Arday was a keynote speaker at US National Association of Funeral Directors international convention in New Orleans. His subsequent appearances, however, may dry up: an appearance in Arizona promised for October this year has also been removed.Explore more on these topicsJason ArdayUniversity of CambridgeHigher educationRaceAcademicsPlagiarismUniversitiesnewsShareReuse this content
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