When the superstar academic Jason Arday took to the stage at the British Sociological Association\u2019s 75th anniversary conference earlier this year, he delivered a talk called Wanted Dead or Alive: the Playbook.<\/p>\n
The youngest black professor in Cambridge University\u2019s history told an audience of his peers that the playbook in question had helped bring down some of the biggest names<\/a> in US academia. Conservative \u201cactivists\u201d were trawling through the work of black academics, looking for anything to use against them: inconsistencies, citation errors, passages in their work that were similar to existing papers.<\/p>\n Once an error was identified, rightwing media outlets and conservative politicians joined the pile-on \u2013 heaping pressure on universities to cut ties.<\/p>\n Claudine Gay, the first black woman to become president of Harvard, was only in the post for seven months before she was forced out over plagiarism allegations. Others said they felt like \u201csitting ducks<\/a>\u201d as their work was pulled apart. Some academics have killed themselves<\/a> after being hounded out of their positions.<\/p>\n Claudine Gay speaking at her inauguration as Harvard University\u2019s 30th president in 2023. Photograph: Boston Globe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The playbook was not restricted to the US, Arday explained. The same tactics were being used to bring down some of the UK\u2019s most high-profile black academics.<\/p>\n \u201cThe instruments that are designed to protect academic integrity, designed to protect our wellbeing and our intellectual property, are weaponised,\u201d he told the audience in April.<\/p>\n He called for his peers to defend him. \u201cThere isn\u2019t any room to sit there and watch your fellows suffer for no reason. It\u2019s abhorrent, it\u2019s a disgrace and, quite frankly, evil,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s the cancer that we need to eradicate from academia.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the audience thought it was strange. Keynotes are usually places where academics talk about their work and discuss breakthroughs, yet here was Arday talking about racism and harassment. Some felt he must have been saying this for a reason.<\/p>\n Then last week a row erupted concerning Arday\u2019s academic work. The Telegraph reported<\/a> that analysis had found more than 100 passages in his PhD were similar to another thesis by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a student at Brunel University in London, published six years earlier.<\/p>\n The report followed a Substack post by Nathan Cofnas, an academic who was previously embroiled in a free speech row at Cambridge after he suggested in a blogpost that, in a meritocracy, there would be \u201cclose to zero\u201d black professors at Harvard. The British politician and activist Simon Woolley called the post \u201cabhorrent racism, masquerading as pseudo-intellect\u201d.<\/p>\n Cofnas, a self-defined \u201crace realist\u201d, was sacked by Cambridge\u2019s Emmanuel College in 2024 and underwent a disciplinary investigation into the blogpost about black academics. The investigation concluded<\/a> that Cofnas was not guilty of \u201cdiscrimination or harassment\u201d, and that his views, \u201cwhile seen by many as offensive, did not breach the law and did not contravene university regulations designed to uphold free speech\u201d. He now works at Ghent University, in Belgium.<\/p>\n Cofnas claimed he had put Arday\u2019s PhD through plagiarism detection software, which found that \u201cmany passages are lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source\u201d.<\/p>\n Another critic of Arday was Dr David Harris, professor emeritus at Plymouth Marjon University, in Devon, who had previously written to Cambridge with claims about Arday\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Harris had been stripped of his professor emeritus title after he wrote a post about critical race theory that was deemed \u201ccontroversial\u201d by colleagues, but it was reinstated in 2026. After Harris\u2019s earlier queries about Arday\u2019s work, two corrections were made to papers released in 2018<\/a> and another in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n The fact that the two most vocal critics of Arday harboured controversial views on race appeared to inform Cambridge\u2019s response, which was a robust defence of Arday. The university called the claims a \u201cvile smear campaign to undermine his credibility\u201d.<\/p>\n An open letter in support of Arday, signed by the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, and the prominent black studies academic Kehinde Andrews, argued there was \u201can orchestrated and grim effort to delegitimise a brilliant, young, working-class academic for the sin of being successful while Black\u201d.<\/p>\n double quotation markProfessor Arday probably holds the top position in the world in sociology of education. It\u2019s important for the whole discipline that he addresses these claimsProf John Preston, University of Essex<\/p>\n Cambridge said it had passed complaints to the university where Arday completed the PhD, Liverpool John Moores, which had reviewed the work and found he had not plagiarised it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe take allegations of academic misconduct incredibly seriously,\u201d a Cambridge spokesperson said. \u201cIt is university procedure that investigations are carried out by the institution at which the research was undertaken. This is standard practice in the sector because that institution has access to the information to ensure a full and fair investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Arday told the Guardian he fully supported \u201cfair investigation processes for genuine concerns\u201d of academic misconduct. He added: \u201cTo clarify, there have been multiple thorough investigations across several institutions as a result of the allegations, and immense scrutiny, including with an academic misconduct panel who concluded that there was no plagiarism or academic misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n But prominent academics of colour that the Guardian spoke to said the claims of plagiarism were legitimate, and that Arday\u2019s alleged actions risked undermining others who study race.<\/p>\n Some of Arday\u2019s peers said the fallout from the row could send shockwaves through academia and set the study of race in Britain back 20 years.<\/p>\n One academic, who has worked in the area of race and education for decades and spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, said the accusations against Arday were worrying. \u201cI think it\u2019s plagiarism and it\u2019s obvious,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n John Preston, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Essex, said: \u201cHaving seen the evidence, it triangulates and there is, in my judgment, a case to answer here.\u201d<\/p>\n Some have argued that Arday has come under unfair levels of scrutiny. But the academics the Guardian spoke to said it was \u201cfair for someone at Cambridge\u201d, in one of the most prestigious positions in academia.<\/p>\n The tone of the coverage from rightwing publications has been a mix of outrage and \u201cI-told-you-so\u201d self-righteousness, with the Telegraph describing Arday as a \u201cdiversity poster boy\u201d, and his online accusers all sharing a critical view of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.<\/p>\n The stakes are high for all concerned. For Arday, the accusations are potentially ruinous \u2013 plagiarism is as serious as it gets for academic malpractice and the professor has consistently claimed he has done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Times<\/a> on Friday, he suggested the issue had been blown out of proportion. \u201cI am accountable for the mistakes I\u2019ve made,\u201d he said. \u201cI hold myself accountable and other people should hold me accountable. We\u2019re talking about academia here. I didn\u2019t murder somebody. I think the cruelty that I\u2019ve experienced, and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist, is totally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n For Cambridge, there are questions about judgment over Arday\u2019s appointment, which occurred when its own track record on race was being scrutinised in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Cambridge had been criticised for the lack of diversity in its student body and faculty; when Arday was hired, there were only five black professors at the university.<\/p>\n But the accusations of plagiarism are only one element of the Arday story.<\/p>\n In March 2023, the sociologist\u2019s arrival at Cambridge made headlines around the world. Not only was he the youngest black professor in the university\u2019s history, but his backstory made that feat all the more impressive. His story is to be detailed in a memoir for Simon & Schuster this autumn.<\/p>\n At the age of three, the south Londoner was diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay. He was unable to speak until he was 11 and could not read or write until 18. Despite that, he forged an impressive academic career, mostly focusing on race and education, with stints at Roehampton, Glasgow and Durham universities.<\/p>\n From 17, Arday began completing charity challenges to raise money for various causes. They were often endurance challenges, which began when he was taking a BTec course in sport and development at Merton college in Morden, south London.<\/p>\n Jason Arday claimed to have run 600 miles in six days. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n He has claimed in media interviews to have raised \u00a35m<\/a> for charities over a 20-year period (sometimes this figure has risen to \u00a35.5m<\/a>). He has done this, he says, by running 30 marathons in 35 days \u2013 a feat he has spoken about in media interviews and in his book. He also claimed at public events to have run 600 miles in six days.<\/p>\n As his critics online have pointed out, \u00a35m raised for charity would be a staggering amount for someone who is not already famous. In 2012, Arday said he hoped to raise \u00a3250,000 by the time he was 50<\/a>.<\/p>\n When asked if the \u00a35m figure was accurate, Arday clarified to the Guardian that the money was raised with the help of \u201cmany fundraising collectives over a two-decade period\u201d. When asked to identify other people who took part in these efforts, Arday said he had signed NDAs preventing him from disclosing that information.<\/p>\n The Guardian also asked Arday about his claim to have run 600 miles in six days, an achievement that would make him one of the world\u2019s most gifted endurance runners. (The first woman to achieve the feat, Megan Eckert, only managed it last year<\/a>; the men\u2019s record is 650 miles<\/a>.) He said that because of the \u201ccumulative wear and tear of training\u201d from his previous running challenges he \u201chad to put rest days in between the running days just to finish\u201d the 600-mile challenge, which was actually completed over a 12-day period.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, two universities that had given Arday honorary degrees and doctorates amended their websites, with Southampton Solent University removing the 600 miles citation, and Anglia Ruskin University changing the six days claim to 12 days.<\/p>\n In 2012, Arday was a torchbearer for the Olympic Games and met the tennis player Andy Murray via the TV programme Surprise, Surprise.<\/p>\n After the meeting, Murray said Arday had told him a story that inspired him to victory in his gold medal win against Novak Djokovic. \u201cHe is an epileptic who ran 30 marathons in 35 days,\u201d said Murray. \u201cHe told me that on the 20th day he fell \u2013 he had a fit, a seizure \u2013 and had a hairline fracture in his leg, but he continued. He had asked to meet me, and that was pretty cool, speaking to someone like that.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked by reporters at the time why he carried on, Arday said: \u201cWhen I fell over, I didn\u2019t want to have to pay back thousands of pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n