Jason Arday, Cambridge Plagiarist, thread two

[Angeruish]

We are nearing our 1000-post limit on the original thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/education/5561878-jason-arday-cambridge-plagiarist?reply=153910946

I have now removed the question mark after "plagiarist".

I can't believe the sequel will be as good as the original, but you never know...

@tramtracks has already acknowledged that it was a misunderstanding. No need to string this out.

I would say so.

I'm really curious about this now!

The people I feel sorry for are the students he supervised.There's really not sufficient pathways to complain about poor quality supervision.
I know a student who tried for 5 months to communicate with her supervisor at a Russell group University.She complained and was asked had she fully considered that there were cultural differences which meant he worked different hours and had different values than her.

Just reading some of these personal experiences reminded me of something. My Master's thesis back in early 2000s was around a particular element in HE. I can't be specific as to its hypothesis but I recall ruffling quite a few academics' feathers for daring to carry out an exploration which was student satisfaction focused. I designed a questionnaire, which I posted to every academic. I had returned Qs, which were rendered flawed and useless because some had crossed out parts of my questions, writing lengthy comments about why I should not be exploring this area. This is a thesis which had been approved by the ethics committee! There are some huge egos, who don't like their practice being questioned. Cambridge reminds me of this experience.

I had the misfortune to share a train carriage with a Cambridge academic ( female , headscarf ) who loudly discussed a Jewish colleague on her mobile phone and his suitability to supervise one of her students . I was actually tempted to report her to her college ( it was written on her laptop bag , which she refused to move from the seat beside her to allow anyone to sit down , despite a full carriage) I’m sorry I didn’t although I’m not sure she would have had any repercussions. She was obnoxious, early 30s with no self awareness and discussing confidential student information at the top of her voice .

Absolutely loved this remark.
Why not he seems to have everything else covered
Impossible to tell what is fact and fiction with this character.
Maybe the truth will out.

I have zero trouble believing this - sadly.

Bogohssian and Wenstein regard this whole dismantling of Western culture and civilisation in university departments as a very serious and existential threat. It is even encroaching on the hard sciences now which Dawkins has alluded to.

@AnonyMumAuDHD”Jason and his Technicolour Dreamscape”. 🤣

Thanks for posting One to watch later on the big screen.

I have several serious issues with Nathan Cofnas' work but I agree with a pp who said he should have been rationally argued against rather than muzzled.

As to this : 'It was OK for him to also explore the idea that right wingers were lower in Intelligence though - that one kept the left woke amused.'

• I had issues with that argument he made too: but I do think it is in some ways qualitatively different to argue that than to argue that black people are the least averagely intelligent group due to race. Arguing black people are the least intelligent due to skin colour has a long and ugly history which the other one doesn't.

😆 😆

I don't know much about speech therapy so this may be a stupid question but it has been puzzling me. If a child is non-verbal, what happens in speech therapy sessions?

I would need to see more of his work in that area to make more of an informed decision. On the surface, depending on how he presented his hypothesis, I see no issues. Isn't academia about exploring ideas, testing and pushing boundaries?

Good article. Eric Rasmussen is a frustrating one among the US pro-free speech professors for me as often his opinions seem as poorly-evidenced as those he rightly criticises (eg. His blog arguing gay men should not be teachers as they are more likely to molest students).

https://rasmusen.org/t/2008/11/some-old-posts-from-my-2003-weblog.html

However, another controversy Rasmussen was involved in has made me think about this other article he retweeted (https://www.unz.com/article/are-women-destroying-academia-probably/) , quoting this part : 'Geniuses are overwhelmingly male because they combine higher outlier IQ with moderately low agreeableness and conscientiousness.”'

• I don't agree with the article at all, but I do wonder if there has been a similarly DEI-driven promotion of incompetent women, at least sometimes.

Pps here, and Julie Bindel, have focused on women being unfairly overlooked, and older women especially don't seem to have benefited much, if at all, from DEI.
Some incompetent or otherwise questionable women do seem to have been promoted though. Pps have mentioned Hilary Cremin & Claudine Gay across the pond (plus the person who condones child marriage!) and I expect there are others. Unfortunately this gives fuel to the fire of men like the Unz Review writer.

There are competent women of all races, and competent black men. Appoint those : this kind of ridiculous DEI just fuels prejudice.

I don't think it's immoral to explore the hypothesis in theory but in practice Cofnas seems to have not only embraced it (on evidence that seems questionable on various grounds to me) but made being a white nationalist & 'race realist' a central thing and aligned with some pretty unpleasant groups & individuals.

Jordan Peterson and Steven Pinker are among 2 who apparently believe his hypothesis, Douglas Murray too I think. I don't agree with any of them but at least they don't make a banner of being a 'race realist' or align with white nationalism AFAIK.

Maybe afraid of Carter Fuck?

As an academic it is interesting how 'normal' people perceive academia. The comments I've seen under news articles like "well hiring should be based on qualifications and performance not DEI" as if anything in academia is based on merit! It's a networking and reputation game

Well this.

Academia is a cesspit. It’s a mono-thinking, mob following pit of progressive left ideology. You can’t get on if you don’t subscribe to this way of thinking. There is a lack of challenge and curiousity. I was going to say especially in the Humanities but my husband was asked in an interview for a Hard science lectureship how he would decolonize his curriculum ( in a field that started after Britain lost its colonies…)

I know someone who has just got a professorship who is a massive full on conspiracy theorist, really insane conspiracies ( and within the area of his field). He can’t defend these conspiracies when asked enquiring questions about them. He just gets really angry. But his conspiracy theories are aligned to prog left ways of thinking so I guess they have been no barrier.

Academia needs a long slow March away from group think and towards genuine curiousity, critical thinking and academic excellence.

This Substack says Debbie mcKenzie is now his ex wife but I can't find that substantiated elsewhere

https://benryan.substack.com/p/british-tv-show-gave-jason-arday

I am curious about her, apparently she backed his claims on TV..she must have known they were lies.

The views of dr farah ahmed sound like
Boko Haram to me.
Which is obviously worrying given her position.
Apart from all this recent hoo haa.

He was actually cleared in 2025 as he falls into the "protected speech" category which means he made statements considered controversial that don't contain threats or incitement to violence. He'd already left though in 2024 as he didn't want to be put at risk by violent students. The same harassment that Kathleen Stock underwent. This is the sorry state of UK and US campuses.

Carriemac re the railway
Did the college have Hall in its name. ?
Just wondering if it's the same person.
But i guess there are several possibles.
Unfortunately.

Has the vice-chancellor made any comment yet? Or has she been too busy with the astronomy case? https://21percent.org/?p=4148

I was reading reviews of his book earlier (people who had advance copies so reviews weren't based on recent events) and one of the reviews was talking about after he got to the point where he got divorced all mention of Debbie and the children disappear going forward in the book.