The Jason Arday scandal, part deux

[KatiePricesKnickers]

As the book launch is coming, let the discussion continue.

First thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5563599-the-jason-arday-scandal?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share
This is lifted from the thread in the education section, which is an interesting summary
https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/the-great-and-unfortunate-story-of?r=8w0woc&triedRedirect=true

Or AIBU with not letting this fade away?

He lied about his credentials and his students suffered due to that. Those who complained were called racist unfairly.

And any plagiarism is serious, especially at one of the 2 best unis in the world (or supposed to be!).

It' not only the plagiarism. He lied just as Raynor Winn did about his condition being miraculously cured. That gave cruel false hope to kids with nonverbal kids.

Real black scholars and students have lost a role model & are suffering from those who use Arday as an excuse to be racist and say none deserve their places. And some people are legitimately concerned as Arday does not seem to have been the only one to get a post primarily due to race.

The Spectator: “We can reveal that a former supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, now banned as a terror group, has been appointed assistant research professor of education at Cambridge, in the same faculty as Arday.

Farah Ahmed has explicitly attacked 'western education' as a 'threat' to Muslims, condemned democracy and integration, and criticised British schools for teaching pupils that child marriage is wrong.

During her time at Cambridge, she has written that the Islamic concept of education is sharply opposed to 'gaining literacy and numeracy and other disciplinary skills demonstrated through qualifications'.

These statements are part of her long record of bigoted, extremist and separatist views on education."

I think we can firmly say that whoever is in charge of hiring for that department is slightly worrying and they themselves should not be allowed anywhere near children or education!

I think he IS part of the issue though. He must know he' done wrong, he harmed students, harmed parents who got false hope re nonverbal children due to his story, also.

He may be mentally ill but he seemed fairly lucid to me. We shouldn't infantilise him- not you, but some pps seem to excuse him as he must be ill.

I think Colin Wynter KC - who also happens to be black - has summed up the whole debacle very succinctly. All parties involved have been utterly ridiculous.

A daily mail link which I know makes me a terrible human being but it has a pic of the front cover of his book - the quote from Kathy Burke is perfect - ‘What a remarkable book from a unique and extraordinary man’ 😁😁😁

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16044997/Jason-Ardays-controversial-book-released-US-public-no-mention-plagiarism-scandal-Cambridge-resignation.html

It sounds like these children had language delay or mild/moderate developmental language disorder (DLD) that responded well to early intervention.

Arday claims to be autistic, which rules him out as having DLD.

DEI is essentially what got the doors opened for women all those years ago, and it is still important today as those doors seem to have a hard time staying open.

• is it? Women didn't win the vote, right to uni degrees, stand as MPs, beckme doctors, lawyers etc via positive discrimination. What doors were opened for women by DEI in your view?

Unlike most politicians?

You mentioned women standing as MPs. It might be interesting for you to read around the impact of Labour's All Women Shortlists on the number of women in parliament. When I started looking into it, I was of the opinion that women should be able to get elected to parliament without any sort of leg-up and that it was patronising.

But the data is undeniable, and now I believe that AWS were completely necessary. So there's a door that has been opened for women by DEI.

I’m not saying it happened, I’m just saying it’s not entirely impossible. However, he is a grifter who makes stuff up.

I was stupid enough to download this book off Amazon: The Jason Arday Paradox: the making, merit and memory of a modern academic icon. By Dr Rachid.

100% AI.

I didn’t exactly expect it to be any use and it was only 4 quid but I was surprised how uselessly it just summarises what we all know so. It just keeps doing this chapter after chapter.

This is it then.

I realise we’ve been here before with GMO food, sampled music, driverless cars and film scripts written by committees but this all does seem very extreme. More than just a Frankenstein reaction.

Is there any point to written communication if we’re just going to get AI to write it, then summarise it so we don’t have to read it, and then get it to reply and so on?

Will we get stuck in a vortex of the same information being regenerated until we run out of ideas and become extinct because we’re used all the water up with AI?

Of course women earned their rights, over millennia, and had a hard fight every step of the way.

But, as I see it, all rights movements hold in them the idea of other (diversity) having a right to participate (equity and inclusion), in some way or other.

I saw DEI as an iteration of that idea, in that sense that we should make sure we are giving everyone a fair shot. Let's not just look at people "just like us" when trying to fill rolls.

That reminder and awareness was needed at the time ('60s I think?).

However, once it got swept up into American social and racial problems, and co-opted by American corporate virtue signaling, it got transformed it onto something completely unsustainable that actually does more damage than good.

Fair point, well made. I termed it poorly. His case is a symptom of a bigger problem in academia, as I outlined

I'm still of the view that Fraud is in play by Arday and a criminal investigation would be in the public interest

Section 2 Fraud Act 2006 - Fraud by false representation fits the bill.

Just seeing news alerts that he has been found dead.

www.thetimes.com/article/jason-arday-former-cambridge-university-professor-found-dead-7z99sqtvt

Well, the people who warned that this could go the same way as the Caroline flack tragedy were right.

What a shit show from start to finish.

Oh no.

The police describe it as being unexpected but not suspicious.

Poor man

I really hope you are reflecting on your posts.

Gosh

That's below the belt. Nobody here got him into the situation he ended up in.

Exactly.

100% when will people learn

Absolutely, what an absolute tragedy.