He passed away a week and a half after resigning amidst allegations of plagiarism.
Jason Arday, a 37-year-old sociology professor, was found dead in London on August 14, according to the newspaper Kommersant.
He was the youngest Black professor at Cambridge.
The scholar—the son of immigrants from Ghana—had stated that he was autistic, unable to speak until the age of 11, and unable to read until he was 18. He also spoke of his athletic achievements, such as running 30 marathons in 35 days.
According to Kommersant, university leadership—facing criticism over a lack of Black faculty members (there were only five before Arday)—turned the young scholar into a “media star” to craft a narrative of inclusivity; they hired him despite his lack of appropriate qualifications, bypassing other candidates with genuine academic merit.
In the summer of 2026, British media outlets and philosophers published investigations revealing—through the use of specialized software—hundreds of instances of plagiarism in Arday’s texts. He had copied the work of others, replicating even their typos. The exposure triggered a vicious online harassment campaign. Right-wing activists labeled the professor the “ultimate symbol of the failure” of racial diversity (DEI) policies. Arday resigned due to the emotional strain. His supporters are convinced that this “racist” campaign was what led to the fatal outcome.
Following the tragedy, a memorial rally attended by thousands was held in Trafalgar Square, and a petition demanding an investigation into the press’s role in the harassment campaign gathered over 90,000 signatures. The professor is survived by his wife, Debbie McKenzie—a teacher he had known since his youth—and their two children.
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