Professor and author Jason Arday has resigned from his professorship at the University of Cambridge after accusations of plagiarism, The Guardian reports.
Arday’s resignation comes less than a week before the U.S. publication of his memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, which a critic for Kirkus called “a grueling account of academic success.” The memoir recounts Arday’s childhood as an autistic boy who did not learn to read or write until he was 18, and his adulthood, in which he has battled epilepsy and depression, eventually earning a Ph.D. in sociology.
Arday was the youngest Black academic to be appointed a Cambridge professor when he was hired in 2023; earlier this week he became the subject of an investigation by the university. That investigation came on the heels of a Guardian report that suggested that Arday may have plagiarized parts of his Ph.D. thesis, a claim Arday denies. He told The Guardian, “There have been multiple thorough investigations across several institutions as a result of the allegations, and immense scrutiny, including with an academic misconduct panel who concluded that there was no plagiarism or academic misconduct.”
In an interview with the U.K. newspaper The Times, Arday said, “I am accountable for the mistakes I’ve made. I hold myself accountable and other people should hold me accountable. 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.”
In a letter, Arday said he was resigning from his position for his own well-being and for his family.
“I want to reclaim some peace, some privacy and some semblance of an ordinary life,” he wrote. “I no longer wish to feel as though I am living under a constant spotlight, where every aspect of my life is subject to public examination and judgement.”
The New York Times reports that Simon & Schuster, Arday’s U.S. publisher, is standing by the book.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
