A Cambridge University professor has defended his academic work after finding himself at the centre of a plagiarism row.
The row erupted after another academic – self-defined “race realist” Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 – said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in Prof Jason Arday’s work and questioned some of his stated achievements.
While some critics say the treatment of Arday, who is black, has been motivated by racism, others have said the claims of plagiarism were legitimate.
Arday admitted errors in his work, telling the Times in an interview on Saturday that he was accountable for those mistakes but that “what I am not is a liar”.
He told the newspaper: “There has been, since I arrived at Cambridge, a very well orchestrated and co-ordinated campaign to unseat me from my position.”
He argued this was “racially motivated” and that he had become a “lightning rod” for criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy.
Arday said some errors in his early academic work was because of his autism, as he relied on using mimicry to make sense of information, and that similar scrutiny would find similar errors in work by other academics.
“We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder somebody. I think the cruelty that I’ve experienced and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist is totally unacceptable,” he told the newspaper.
In 2023, the then 37-year-old sociologist became the youngest ever black professor at Cambridge, telling the BBC at the time his work focused on neurodivergence and race in education.
He was diagnosed with autism and global development delay in his early years, to which his being unable to speak until the age of 11 and unable to read or write until 18 was attributed.
Arday worked as a PE teacher before earning his doctorate at Liverpool John Moores University and going on to teach at Roehampton, Durham and Glasgow.