In 2023, the then 37-year-old sociologist became the youngest ever black professor at Cambridge.In a statement posted by the Good Law Project on Wednesday, Arday said that being appointed professor had been "without question, the greatest professional privilege of my life".One it now looks like you didn't deserve and only got for one reason.
Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, who describes himself as an associate of Arday, told BBC Newsnight on Wednesday that he found "the whole thing regrettable". "From, I think, how he's been treated and the quite obtuse spotlight on him about his CV - career - at Cambridge University," he said. "I think it's also regrettable that there may be some untruths that have come out about his CV."
On Saturday, Arday told the Times in an interview that he was accountable for those mistakes, but that "what I am not is a liar".
Sounds like something a liar woud say...
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 suggested that this was "racially motivated" and that he had become a "lightning rod" for criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy.
"Disability card?... That'll do nicely!"
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.
Ah, the appeal to 'everyone does it!'...
"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.
Most of us think the elevation of a liar and fantasist to this position purely to tick a box is what's 'unacceptable' .
6 comments:
One of my sons has high-functioning ASD (or Asperger’s syndrome, as it used to be known). Unlike his brother, he almost never told lies as a child; any deviation from the truth made him distinctly uncomfortable and still does. Acknowledged fiction is fine - he is a voracious reader and has had several SF&F stories published - but he finds inconsistencies in the real world very hard to deal with as they offend his strong sense of order and logic.
This is, I believe, a very common trait among people with ASD, many of whom find lying extremely difficult. I suspect that the next aspect of Arday’s story to face scrutiny will be his claims of an early diagnosis non-verbal autism and global developmental delay and his alleged inability to read or write until the age of 18; it would be interesting to hear from his classmates at the mainstream secondary school he attended. (One point perhaps worth mentioning is that his mother, as a mental health nurse in the NHS, could have been well placed to know about, say, the benefits available for children with certain disorders.)
Tangentially, re Cambridge University, there’s a telling quote in today’s Times from the Master of Selwyn College:
“….thanks to a collective effort by the colleges and the central administration, Cambridge has made enormous progress. The most recent admissions statistics show 35 per cent of new undergraduates came from ethnic minorities.”
Further research which may be relevant:
‘A severe lack of intellectual and environmental stimulation in a child's early years can closely mimic and be mistaken for both Global Developmental Delay (GDD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This profound lack of interaction, often termed environmental deprivation or psychosocial deprivation, can cause a child to miss critical developmental milestones, look withdrawn, and exhibit behaviors that overlap with neurodevelopmental disorders.
However, there is a fundamental difference: delays caused by a lack of stimulation can often be reversed or significantly improved with a supportive, enriched environment.’ (US National Institute of Health via Google AI)
That's.... I dunno, horrendous? Only 15% of the population are ethnic minorities. They should be prosecuted for breeches of discrimination legislation.
So 35 percent of new undergraduates are now from an ethnic minority, mazel tov! How does this compare to the country as a whole? If it ever gets to 50 percent ethnic minority then they are no longer the minority; basic maths there, but for all I know maths is now in need of decolonisation. Where I live, the population is about 97 percent white, not because we are racist, but simply because we are, you know, ethnic British. Just don't tell the Grauniad.
Anon; re decolonising maths, our teacher training colleges are now telling their students to, among other things:
- Introduce maths as a living, imperfect tool shaped by human needs, survival, and navigation rather than abstract perfection.
- Shift from the teacher as the absolute Western authority to a co-learner who values students' community knowledge.
- Teach students to critically analyse how statistics and data modelling have been used historically to justify colonial policies or systemic bias.
No wonder Cambridge’s Faculty of Education were so keen to recruit Professor Arday. I, for one, am not looking forward to living in a world where engineers have been taught in school that the answer to v=d/t depends on the cultural context.
Its not even his academic work that is getting him labeled as a 'liar' and 'fantasist'. That's just the normal plagarism that is common among the DIE and social studies communities.
Its the actual, you know, lying and fantasies. 'Ran 600 miles in 6 days'. 'Was in a coma after a car accident but there's no evidence of it'. 'I totally have a Ferrari and a girlfriend but the Ferrari is at my parent's house and she lives in Canada, so you wouldn't know her'.
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