The Jason Arday scandal

[Ilikesundays]

To think that Cambridge University’s reputation has been shot to pieces by the revelations about ex-professor Jason Arday?

you'd just think their supposed critical thinking skills would have got the better of them

Prof Baron-Cohen baffles me the most. He is a professor specialising in autism - was he not suspicious of these claims of mutism and hours every day of speech therapy, and illiterate until 18 etc.
Yet he still seems to be defending him. (I guess he knows him as a colleague and likes him).

I hate to say this, but when I read that his PhD was about peer mentoring between trainee PE teachers, I thought that perfectly explained the lack of scrutiny (and indeed rigour).

Sadly sexual misconduct is far from rare. Being the youngest ever Black Professor at Cambridge is a singular thing.

So with spotlight already on him the revelations that he's lied, apparently from start to finish about literally everything, are indeed going to be deemed more newsworthy.

Why do you think I am Jason?

I simply said I don’t understand why this is getting so much media attention compared to some other cases. Which tbh I still don’t but clearly it has piqued people’s interests so fair enough to them.

But other misconduct cases don’t get as much media attention. I haven’t even defended the guy

I believe that was a student and he resigned from the position he held at the Oxford Union, which is an elected position. Still bad but not really the University's fault!

On the PE teacher note - I also read that Arday qualified (and worked?) as a PE teacher. To qualify as a teacher you have to have maths and English GCSE equivalent qualifications. But he has also claimed to only have PE and textiles GCSE...

If he was a middle-aged white bloke from a provincial university, he wouldn't have been given these roles:

• Cambridge University
• Trustee of the Runnymede Trust race relations think-tank
• Patron of the Adult Literacy Trust
• Trustee of the British Sociological Association and Autism Action
• On the Centre for Labour and Social Studies National Advisory Panel
• The NHS Race and Health Observatory Academic Reference Group
• The ITV Cultural Advisory Council.
• Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts

A quick disclaimer to say that my source for the above is the Daily Mail, but as a journalist has previously been investigated by the police for their claims, I would have thought the reporter will have thoroughly documented their sources for their own protection.

It isn't racism to point out that someone who has capitalised on being the youngest black professor of a prestigious university is a charlatan. He invited scrutiny by becoming so public and trying to cash in on his 'unicorn' status.

If he had stuck to a basic story, it would likely never have been uncovered (although I suspect people should have raised an eyebrow at the word 'poultry' being substituted for 'paltry'). But he's gone so far beyond that. He's made claims that simply can't be true.

I also don't think it is racism to say that it is most likely that had he not been black and neurodiverse, there may have been more scrutiny of his academic background. A middle class white man would need to do a lot to stand out from a crowded field. Arday stood out by virtue of his heritage and his developmental history, so it seems that less checking was done of his academic background, especially as qualifications and work history claims are quietly being erased.

Indeed!! How that was ever even deemed to be an acceptable subject for a PhD I do not know.

I see what you’re saying but by and large today’s news is tomorrow’s chip paper.

This should make universities more careful
in future but if some people use this as a way to reinforce their prejudices then I doubt they were that open minded anyway.

As a pp said, in short it is a brilliant story.

Jason has also had a media profile which other academics haven't, which makes him a public figure. Additionally, he's been held up as inspiration so people have felt personally invested in his success.

Other cases of academic plagiarism and misconduct should be taken much more seriously too.

I also don't think it is racism to say that it is most likely that had he not been black and neurodiverse

at this point @Lougle I would be totally unsurprised to find that he is not autistic at all.

Charlotte Gill has an article about PHD’s in the same department at Cambridge, as you can imagine it seems like a lot of money is being spent on complete nonsense.

Blimey. Is the tax payer coughing up for this?

Yes what an expert!

Imo the autism/mute/illiterate thing has caused the most damage here not the alleged 'racism'.

His whole triumph over adversity bollocks will be an absolute slap in the face for those with autism or family of those with autism. For someone to get 1 or 2 gcses then lie and become a professor at Cambridge is such a sick thing to do.

Was he even autistic and as an aside did he wear makeup he seems to have eyeliner on in his media pics.

He may well have exaggerated in his biography, probably wouldn't be the first to do so, but the fact remains he has been investigated and cleared of plagiarism.

If he was a middle-aged white bloke from a provincial university, he wouldn't have been given these roles:

• Cambridge University
• Trustee of the Runnymede Trust race relations think-tank
• Patron of the Adult Literacy Trust
• Trustee of the British Sociological Association and Autism Action
• On the Centre for Labour and Social Studies National Advisory Panel
• The NHS Race and Health Observatory Academic Reference Group
• The ITV Cultural Advisory Council.
• Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts

But most of these types of these roles are held by middle-aged white blokes.

How many people now think that the was cleared of plagiarism for reasons other than him being innocent of plagiarism?

And around that time potential teachers had to pass the online maths, spelling and IT tests. Or did he not actually qualify.

Yes that is something I hadn’t known until this thread, that Jason was actually previously well known.

I’d been getting ‘breaking news’ notifications on my phone about the case which I had thought was a bit much for a case of academic misconduct considering all the other news stories.

Interesting that as a result this case has probably done more damage to Cambridge’s reputation than other serious issues just because it’s more uncommon. Can’t imagine it’s done any lasting damage though.

I look forward to the inevitable Netflix doc

By a University that he only had one supervision session at.

They of course don't want him - a superstar student- to be revealed to have been plagerised.

Oh and apparently in his biography he claims he lost all of his memory before his viva and had to relearn his thesis.

It needs to be an independent review.

Have heard talk in our local library whether his new book should be in biography or in the fiction section

Well as in this context if you think of all the character groups involved here they are defined by class more than any other aspect when you dig down.

Whereas in America their groups are more defined by race and religion. And that’s because it’s a much younger country. We had hundreds year of embedded class structure here when Americans were still ridding round the Wild West fighting Indians. Obviously money and power has made a kind of class system over there but it’s not the same as here. Here so much of our values and ideals are predetermined by this history/ or position in society - whether we see it or not.

But yes I will struggle to unpack it further than that without everyone arguing over it and that’s part of the problem. It is so innate to us we struggle to see it. A bit like British Identity or Culture - which is so innate to us many don’t believe it exists 😂

He was targeted because he lied, not because of his skin colour.

And if he didn't train and qualify as a teacher, then what informed his PhD thesis about trainee PE teachers??

Is it nuance, though? If she had been promoted as a stunning writer representative of contemporary white female literary culture, then yes, it would undermine other white female writers. She wasn’t obviously. But she was promoted for writing autobiography and for writing about CBD and a potential cure. For the damage she has done, she has been vilified by families of CBD sufferers and by society at large for the negative impact she has had on the genre of biographical fiction.

JA was heralded as a representative of disadvantage black youth and as a representative of the disabled community through his autism, GDD and mutism. It was these DEI characteristics that got him speaking engagements, TV appearances, a book deal and, yes, led him to be cherry picked by Cambridge and then celebrated vastly in the media by all. His race was core to his usp.

You can’t leverage your race on the one hand and then cry foul when legitimate questions are asked about the voracity of your qualifications and experience - which is absolutely seems to have done in his dealings with Grove of the THE, when it was Grove’s job to investigate and explore the world of academia. I am sure he has investigated many academics of all skin shades.

I do think that this will now be leveraged by despicable parties within the right wing - but Cambridge, JA and everyone involved in his career who did not do their due diligence has to accept that this is a natural and anticipatory result of placing someone utterly unqualified and ill-equipped into a role purely because you have a DEI agenda.

There are, fortunately, some extraordinary black academics with a media presence: Prof Chris Jackson (volcanologist in the BBC Pompeii series), Prof David Olusoga (historian too many programmes to list) and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock the astrophysicist.

The media now needs to remind the public of these incredible individuals and look to the paths into academia they took, and ensure other clever motivated black kids can do the same - and have their achievements equally recognised.