EDITORS' CORNER
Jason Arday, once celebrated as Cambridge’s youngest black professor, resigned Wednesday
A once celebrated DEI scholar at the University of Cambridge resigned Wednesday after reportedly lying about holding a guest professorship at Ohio State University.
And allegedly plagiarizing his dissertation.
And supposedly doing sloppy academic research.
And reportedly running 30 marathons in 35 days, including the last nine with a broken leg.
And claiming (authorities say without evidence) that he has been the target of racial harassment repeatedly, including having bananas, bullets, and a pig’s head mailed to him.
And supposedly having raised £5 million (about $6.7 million) for charity over the past two decades.
The list goes on.
On Wednesday, the mounting allegations against Professor Jason Arday – once “regarded as an academic superstar,” according to The Guardian – prompted the university to open an investigation.
Hours later, the BBC reported that Arday had resigned.
Until this week, the university has defended Arday, a sociologist and the youngest black professor in its history, according to another Guardian report.
However, evidence of alleged lies and other academic misconduct continued to grow.
The professor’s supposed affiliation with Ohio State University, uncovered by National Review’s Abigail Anthony this week, is another example:
Arday says on his official faculty website that he is a visiting professor at The Ohio State University in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion — but Ohio State’s DEI office shuttered in 2025, and the school said he was never an employee.
“We have no record of an employee by that name,” Ohio State University spokesman Benjamin Johnson told National Review on Tuesday.
Ohio State previously announced that its Office of Diversity and Inclusion would close, effective February 28, 2025. Arday did not respond to a request for comment.
Arday has denied the plagiarism allegations that first prompted the scrutiny, and suggested they were “racially motivated,” the BBC reports.
In his resignation statement Wednesday, the former professor did not admit to any wrongdoing. He said his decision should not “be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me.”
“The years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack,” he stated.
He also said “this is not the end of my work” and he needs “time to heal.”
Arday has a memoir slated for release next week. In a YouTube short promoting the book, he says he was diagnosed with autism at age 3, didn’t learn to speak until he was almost 12, and learned to read and write when he was 18.
National Review documented a series of other questionable claims Arday made, including published academic articles with “many spelling errors and grammatical mistakes” and a lack of “methodological rigor.”
What’s more:
Arday says he has helped raise millions of dollars for charity, accomplished in part by running 300 miles in three days, 600 miles across six days, and 30 marathons in 35 days — the last nine of which he claims to have completed with a broken leg. After The Telegraph reported that running 600 miles over six days was nearly a world record, Arday said the feat was actually completed over twelve days. …
Aside from running fundraisers, Arday claims to have assisted with “installing water points” in South America and West Africa through the international nonprofit WaterAid — but the organization has a policy that it does not send its volunteers abroad.
As a result of his public profile and prestigious academic roles, Arday has said that he was targeted by racists who sent him malicious communications. Arday specifically claimed that bananas and bullets were mailed to his university office, and that corrosive substances — as well as a mutilated pig head — were sent to his home. The Guardian found no proof that these particular events occurred; the only corroboration came from Arday and his family. Arday also told The Guardian that a masked man arrived at his university building and threatened to cause harm if he did not resign; the intruder was not seen on security recordings, and faculty did not report seeing any suspicious activity.
MORE: Ibram Kendi’s ‘Chain of Ideas’ smears conservative views as racist: book review
