Left’s Weaponization of “Disability” Behind Cambridge’s Jason Arday Scandal
Disgraced sociologist’s plagiarism was enabled by decades of attacks on academic standards
The picture presented by the media over the last two weeks of Jason Arday, the youngest black professor ever hired by Cambridge University, is that of a unique plagiarist and fabulist who managed to independently fool prestigious institutions and publishers. Arday, who resigned on Wednesday, acted alone in his academic dishonesty, Cambridge implied when it announced it would conduct an investigation into Arday’s “appointment and tenure.”
Yet Arday’s rise was only possible because of Cambridge’s willingness to hire someone unqualified and to turn a blind eye to his plagiarism. Nathan Cofnas, a philosopher of biology who first brought Arday’s verbatim copying of a PhD dissertation to public attention, also found that the ten papers listed on Arday’s Cambridge faculty webpage demonstrated essentially no rigorous academic work. And David Harris, a professor emeritus at Plymouth Marjon University, had notified Cambridge administrators about Arday’s plagiarism in 2023. When reporter Jack Grove investigated Arday’s plagiarism last year, he submitted 97 pages of evidence to Cambridge. Still, the university did nothing.
Arday was, to be sure, singular in his pathological deception. He said he was in the famous BBC documentary series, “Seven Up!” even though it had started filming two decades before he was born. Arday also recounted raising over £5 million for charity, running 600 miles in six days, and running nine marathons with a fractured fibula. In his book proposal for Simon & Schuster, Arday wrote that he had experienced “locked-in syndrome” for months after an accident before waking up miraculously.
But Cambridge accepted Arday’s outlandish lies because they built a story of overcoming adversity in the face of racism, ableism, and discrimination. The university’s press office played up the announcement of Arday’s appointment to the media, and the BBC, CBS News, and Good Morning America covered the hire as inspirational. Arday’s account of not speaking until age 11, and not learning to read and write until age 18, flattered a narrative the university welcomed.
