Was Jason Arday just the perfect victim?

[KellyK2026]

Surely I can’t be the only one that feels like Jason Arday was a victim, right? Yesterday he was found dead and I feel bad for him. Here’s the reasons why I think he was a victim:

1. It is absolutely insane to me that Cambridge University would appoint him as a Professor when he was in the early stages of his career. It’s practically unheard of. At any university you typically have to earn your dues (which means working as an academic for many years) OR do something truly special, like a Nobel Prize nomination, to be promoted to Professor. I cannot imagine the amount of pressure he had been under to prove himself and likely had a tremendous amount of imposter syndrome. Cambridge let him down.
2. I’ve worked in academia for many years, and let me tell you, academics are under a tremendous amount of pressure to publish. This pressure can compromise quality. Arday isn’t the first nor will he be the last to publish questionable papers.
3. As I’ve worked in academia for years, I’ve experienced academics make racist and sexist remarks first hand. One white academic I worked with got drunk at a work get together and started a rant about how Black people shouldn't be president (this was when Obama was in power), that Obama was a Muslim and interracial relationships were ‘disgusting’. What made this somewhat even worse was that this particular academic wrote about racism in the public sphere, so he profited from writing about Black struggles while harbouring these personal views. There was no repercussions for him, despite presenting himself as something other than what he was.
4. I’ve also been sexually assaulted at a conference by a male academic. No repercussions for him either and he no doubt pretends to be a feminist in his work.
5. I don’t think it’s in doubt that Arday had autism. Now I don’t know how it affected him personally, but, again, that must’ve been extremely difficult and perhaps even blurred what is and isn’t acceptable in higher education.
6. He was also cleared of plagiarism but, again, so many academics have plagiarised ideas and papers, but they haven’t been strung up like Arday has been.

So, long story short, I feel like Cambridge let him down. And I feel like he was targeted because there’s plenty of other examples but they never get called out and nobody cares. It was a witch hunt. But I’d be interested to hear what others have to say on this matter.

There's a picture of him on the Cambridge University website showing him in his graduation gown getting his PhD in 2016, so yes it was before AI.

He didn’t get his phd in Cambridge. It was in pe

If his pic is getting his phd in Cambridge then it is definitely AI

I’m out

No, it's not showing him getting his PhD in Cambridge, it's a blog on the website about his appointment as a Professor. The photo caption says he was getting his PhD at Liverpool John Moores in 2016.

I actually agree. Cambridge fucked up first. Seriously, and likely deliberately. They got their “poster” boy. JA did what he did. It’s all there now for all to see. The press went looking, some with a clear agenda , and boy did they find something. They probably couldn’t believe their luck, not just clicks and revenue, but a story that “supports” several of their narratives too. Of course they pushed and pushed and pushed. Part of the problem was there was so much to find which was down to Cambridge and JA.

Superior hidden knowledge eh?

Actually, yes, at least one did. There was a massive cover up that was an open secret in my institution. In my opinion it was the fact that the person in question was so high profile that meant they were protected. But usually no-one is that interested in academia shitstorms, beyond the people who work in academia, the media don't really get involved because it's not seen as 'public interest'

@singthing - so, you don’t think that drink and drug driving multiple times, driving while banned, leaving your children unfed and unsupervised while being ‘off your face’, failing to safeguard numerous animals in her care thereby causing their deaths, failing many times to turn up for court hearings, owing so much money that you are bankrupted….

Do you still think she hasn’t done anything wrong? Wow!!

Ok thanks.
I was making the point that PHDs absolutely can be checked now though - a pp was saying they can't due to their size.
Was the picture taken from the uni he got his PhD from?

I’m sorry. I do feel sorry for this guy. I think he has been treated very badly but i think he has obviously behaved very badly. Cambridge in particular allowed that. They were wrong and it affected many people. The guys who appointed him should be questioned. May he rest in peace.

Lots of people on social media saying they knew him and
what a good man he was. They seemed pretty quiet up until the tragic news of yesterday.

Interesting. I've spoken to a couple of people who knew students of his. He was apparently known to not be a very good teacher and if anyone questioned or asked for clarity he complained about white privilege.

I suspect most of us will never really know what he was like.

Yes, I think so, the caption said it was at Liverpool John Moores.

Interesting article, actually 🤔

https://news.educ.cam.ac.uk/230223-jason-arday

Fair enough, thank you.

my wee cat has more authentication than JA. He’s a particularly amazing cat though.

I want Cambridge university to give my cat a professorship. He absolutely deserves it. He’s never ever lied in his life, he is authentic.,

Cats are nice to look at but dodgy get a dog

My wee cat deserves it.

My dog can stare into your soul like JA!!

Really interesting article @ForeverDelayedEpiphany - would be so interesting to know how much of it is verified.

Had it just been his academic record or a little exaggeration on his CV or a small section of his bio that was false and he hadn't been the poster boy for victimhood/ EDI then I'd agree with you. But it wasn't its every aspect of his life, CV, academic prowess, achievements and history.
When multiple universities and and mainstream media outlets have bought into his lies and then you add the lawyers and police investigation and worst of all the ever changing (changed multiple times after people signed it because the original contained multiple factual errors that came to light over time) letter of support from the so called Good Law Project that people including major academics signed and the removed their support from as the letter changed and more facts came out. This along with the leisure about the pigs head and the knife attack on campus (less than zero evidence of either having occurred and actual evidence that he made them up) ofcourse this was going to get as big as it has and call into question all EDI processes. This is especially true when you look at who the independent members of the hiring group where and what they preach along with the fa t that BLM were consulted before he got hired.
Arday is a perfect example of all that is wrong with EDI and I say that as someone who is autistic and severely dyslexic (as im sure is obvious to anyone reading my posts even with the help of autocorrect and spell grammar check 🤣) and am all for REASSURANCE adjustments. The facts remain that he was not capable of doing the job to the level required and only got it because of his lies and multiple universities wanting the perfect EDI poster boy that he pretended to be and they were so eager to get one that they didn't even bother to check if his CV was accurate

Blimey, I'm sure you didn't mean to be so rude!

I agree proportionality matters. But in Arday’s case, the timing was uniquely bad, the memoir draft landed while Cambridge’s review was still ongoing, and the visiting professorship discrepancies were unusually clear-cut. Once Cofnas’s blog post went viral, the whole thing got sucked into the DEI culture war. Most plagiarism cases don’t involve a live investigation, a high-profile memoir, and a politically charged commentator. That’s why this one blew up in a way others don’t.