The questions Jason Arday’s life and death raise for academia

Sociology professor Jason Arday was lauded as the youngest-ever Black professor appointed at the University of Cambridge in 2023. But since landing that position, he’d been, according to his family, “subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse,” stemming from scrutiny about his work and record.


Arday faced growing accusations of plagiarism and fraud, was found dead in London on August 14th, just days after he resigned from Cambridge. 

His death is raising new questions about how fairly Black academics are elevated and criticized in comparison to their peers. In this episode, we explore those questions with University of Southern California Professor Shaun Harper, whose research focuses on race, gender, and equity in education and other spheres. 

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This episode was produced by Michelle Aslam and Jeffrey Pierre, with audio engineering by Robert Rodriguez. Our director is Alejandra Marquez Janse.

It was edited by Christopher Intagliata and Ashley Brown. 

Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning.

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