A week after resigning from Cambridge due to "falsifying his past": The black professor was found lifeless

About a week after he was forced to resign from his position, the police in the UK announced on Friday that Jason Arday was found lifeless in a home in London. The police stated that at this stage there is no suspicion of foul play, but his death is under investigation.

Arday was a British sociologist who became famous as the youngest black professor ever appointed at the University of Cambridge. However, last week he was forced to resign after the university announced it had opened an investigation following "new information" regarding his academic past and the qualifications and degrees he boasted of. The investigation and resignation came after reports spread that extensive parts of Professor Arday's doctoral thesis were actually copied from the work of another researcher, and that various achievements he described in his resume were, at the very least, inflated.

Arday was only 37 years old when he was appointed professor at Cambridge in 2023. That achievement was presented as an inspiring story, as Arday overcame dyslexia, developmental delays, and autism, which was diagnosed at age 3. According to his testimony, he did not speak until age 11 and did not know how to read and write until age 18. Many saw him as the "poster boy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy" — a policy often attacked by conservatives as a discriminatory progressive agenda that promotes the unqualified at the expense of the qualified.

In recent weeks, Arday found himself under close scrutiny following doubts raised by Nathan Cofnas, a former philosophy researcher at Cambridge. On July 24, "The Times" published an analysis of Arday's 2015 doctoral thesis, highlighting passages that were "identical or nearly identical" to an earlier document written by another researcher. Although Cambridge initially backed Arday, claiming that the plagiarism allegations had already been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University, subsequent checks raised serious questions about his professional history.

For example, four universities — in the UK, the USA, and South Africa — rejected his claim that he held academic positions there. Further discrepancies were discovered regarding his degrees. In a 2022 lecture, he claimed to have studied for a master's degree in "psychodynamic practice" at Birkbeck University — a claim that apparently has no basis. Similar doubts arose regarding his charitable work: claims about raising 5.5 million pounds and volunteering for WaterAid were not supported by evidence.

On a personal level, doubts were raised regarding his athletic achievements, such as running 30 marathons in 35 days, and his claim of participating in a TV series that aired decades before his birth. His reports of receiving threats, including a severed pig's head and a knife attack by masked burglars, were also found to be dubious.

In an interview with "The Times" two weeks ago, Arday denied the plagiarism allegations, admitting only to some errors due to a lack of supervision. Following the announcement of the new investigation, Arday announced his resignation, stating: "Criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, but what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement. The relentless accusations, speculation, and public comments have taken a heavy toll on me and my loved ones."