Autistic, working class Black Cambridge professor
Discussion
Much as I try to remain neutral as I read a story, sometimes the effort is rendered futile by my inner sense of 'Oh Oh' - Walter Mitty is alive and well.
The Guardian damns this young Cambridge professor with faint praise.
Basically he attracted attention when some highly partizan figures accused him of 'being economical with the truth in his starry rise. Plagiarism in his PhD. Crazy boasts about charity fund-raising, endurance. Nothing about being in the SAS, but tbf, that would surely have raised suspicions even earlier. To my eye, plagiarism looks plain. The accusers may have been partizan, but their motivation doesn't make them wrong.
(A bit like an anti-trumper comparing his actual Wharton scores versus Trump's claims)
Sad to say, I think this man is troubled, and if his entire credibility is shot (my guess) he will become a cause celebre for Trumpy style attacks on the 'woke' education sector.
Only got believed because he was good for painting Cambridge as a diverse haven. - that kinda thing.
If he does end up as a fallen trail-blazer he will have really done some damage to the wider debate; around black representation, working class representation, even Autistic representation. The story is that he couldn't speak till 11, and read / write till 18. A mum of autistic kids had mentioned him to me as an example for her.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interacti...
The Guardian damns this young Cambridge professor with faint praise.
Basically he attracted attention when some highly partizan figures accused him of 'being economical with the truth in his starry rise. Plagiarism in his PhD. Crazy boasts about charity fund-raising, endurance. Nothing about being in the SAS, but tbf, that would surely have raised suspicions even earlier. To my eye, plagiarism looks plain. The accusers may have been partizan, but their motivation doesn't make them wrong.
(A bit like an anti-trumper comparing his actual Wharton scores versus Trump's claims)
Sad to say, I think this man is troubled, and if his entire credibility is shot (my guess) he will become a cause celebre for Trumpy style attacks on the 'woke' education sector.
Only got believed because he was good for painting Cambridge as a diverse haven. - that kinda thing.
If he does end up as a fallen trail-blazer he will have really done some damage to the wider debate; around black representation, working class representation, even Autistic representation. The story is that he couldn't speak till 11, and read / write till 18. A mum of autistic kids had mentioned him to me as an example for her.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interacti...
The story doesn t just expose a single Walter Mitty, it exposes entire areas of academia . Even The Guardian article suggests that Sociology of Education as a subject is entirely dominated by students from what once would have been called ethnic minorities.
The original passages that have been plagiarised, are not written in any sort of language that can be easily understood by anyone who could quite happily read scientific papers or Ian Fleming or even Shakespeare or Chaucer. It s a subject that is completely self referential, and seemingly of no general utility or interest.
There seems to be a pattern of similar cases, most involving black academics who, far from expanding their minds, study subjects that are only relevant to what (they imagine) are their own experiences or tribulations.
If I see one of the many black or other minority students who have progressed well in Astrophysics or Molecular Biology, Mathematics or Medieval History (among many others), I have nothing but admiration, but please spare us from academic towers of Babel.
The original passages that have been plagiarised, are not written in any sort of language that can be easily understood by anyone who could quite happily read scientific papers or Ian Fleming or even Shakespeare or Chaucer. It s a subject that is completely self referential, and seemingly of no general utility or interest.
There seems to be a pattern of similar cases, most involving black academics who, far from expanding their minds, study subjects that are only relevant to what (they imagine) are their own experiences or tribulations.
If I see one of the many black or other minority students who have progressed well in Astrophysics or Molecular Biology, Mathematics or Medieval History (among many others), I have nothing but admiration, but please spare us from academic towers of Babel.
I ve been following this story for a few weeks
It s hilarious if eye opening.
The Substack that drew my attention first: Nathan Cofnas was the one who first started posting about this and upon which the Guardian s article heavily relies on:
https://open.substack.com/pub/nathancofnas/p/dei-f...
Born to Ghanaian parents, Arday grew up on a council estate (the British equivalent of Section 8 housing) in south London. At age three he was diagnosed with global development delay and autism. Therapists said he would be confined to an assisted living facility. Miraculously, at 11 years old, he spoke his first word ( hello ). When he was 18, he learned to read and write.
Under the influence of a white high school teacher who gave [him] agency, Arday pursued higher education. After receiving a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University, he rocketed up the academic ladder as a scholar of racism, education, and inequality. In three years he went from senior lecturer at Roehampton (2018) to associate professor at Durham (2019) to professor at Glasgow (2021). Ivy League universities (plural) tried to recruit him, but he had his heart set on Oxford or Cambridge. In 2023, at age 37, he became the youngest black full professor in the history of Cambridge. He is one of the youngest people of any race to ever hold a chair professorship at Oxbridge.
In his spare time, Arday ran 30 marathons in 35 days and 300 miles in three days.
As of 2023, he had worked with more than 70 charities and raised more than £5 million.
Up until his appointment at Cambridge, Arday continued to face unspecified hardships. As reported by the Guardian in 2023, despite previously being a professor at Durham and Glasgow, He has barely slept over the past 15 years..., working through most nights often on his academic and charity work, but sometimes just to make ends meet.
He has received hundreds of thousands of letters and emails from fans all over the world. This indicates a level of fame comparable to an upper-middle-tier household name celebrity.
But how much of the most ridiculous story ever told is true?
In summary? Nothing.
As the Substack post makes clear he is a plagiarising liar.
Fantasist is a polite word for it.
But the real story is Cambridge and its utterly farked approach to DEI.
It s hilarious if eye opening.
The Substack that drew my attention first: Nathan Cofnas was the one who first started posting about this and upon which the Guardian s article heavily relies on:
https://open.substack.com/pub/nathancofnas/p/dei-f...
Born to Ghanaian parents, Arday grew up on a council estate (the British equivalent of Section 8 housing) in south London. At age three he was diagnosed with global development delay and autism. Therapists said he would be confined to an assisted living facility. Miraculously, at 11 years old, he spoke his first word ( hello ). When he was 18, he learned to read and write.
Under the influence of a white high school teacher who gave [him] agency, Arday pursued higher education. After receiving a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University, he rocketed up the academic ladder as a scholar of racism, education, and inequality. In three years he went from senior lecturer at Roehampton (2018) to associate professor at Durham (2019) to professor at Glasgow (2021). Ivy League universities (plural) tried to recruit him, but he had his heart set on Oxford or Cambridge. In 2023, at age 37, he became the youngest black full professor in the history of Cambridge. He is one of the youngest people of any race to ever hold a chair professorship at Oxbridge.
In his spare time, Arday ran 30 marathons in 35 days and 300 miles in three days.
As of 2023, he had worked with more than 70 charities and raised more than £5 million.
Up until his appointment at Cambridge, Arday continued to face unspecified hardships. As reported by the Guardian in 2023, despite previously being a professor at Durham and Glasgow, He has barely slept over the past 15 years..., working through most nights often on his academic and charity work, but sometimes just to make ends meet.
He has received hundreds of thousands of letters and emails from fans all over the world. This indicates a level of fame comparable to an upper-middle-tier household name celebrity.
But how much of the most ridiculous story ever told is true?
In summary? Nothing.
As the Substack post makes clear he is a plagiarising liar.
Fantasist is a polite word for it.
But the real story is Cambridge and its utterly farked approach to DEI.
Edited by Ridgemont on Saturday 1st August 23:38
Foss62 said:
The story doesn t just expose a single Walter Mitty, it exposes entire areas of academia . Even The Guardian article suggests that Sociology of Education as a subject is entirely dominated by students from what once would have been called ethnic minorities.
The original passages that have been plagiarised, are not written in any sort of language that can be easily understood by anyone who could quite happily read scientific papers or Ian Fleming or even Shakespeare or Chaucer. It s a subject that is completely self referential, and seemingly of no general utility or interest.
There seems to be a pattern of similar cases, most involving black academics who, far from expanding their minds, study subjects that are only relevant to what (they imagine) are their own experiences or tribulations.
If I see one of the many black or other minority students who have progressed well in Astrophysics or Molecular Biology, Mathematics or Medieval History (among many others), I have nothing but admiration, but please spare us from academic towers of Babel.
Emperor's new clothes stuff and a post modern morality tale.The original passages that have been plagiarised, are not written in any sort of language that can be easily understood by anyone who could quite happily read scientific papers or Ian Fleming or even Shakespeare or Chaucer. It s a subject that is completely self referential, and seemingly of no general utility or interest.
There seems to be a pattern of similar cases, most involving black academics who, far from expanding their minds, study subjects that are only relevant to what (they imagine) are their own experiences or tribulations.
If I see one of the many black or other minority students who have progressed well in Astrophysics or Molecular Biology, Mathematics or Medieval History (among many others), I have nothing but admiration, but please spare us from academic towers of Babel.
In my 30 year career in NHS Mental health I witnessed Freud's psychodynamic psychotherapy collapse from established theory and therapeutic framework to being more or less discredited as a theoretical framework and treatment modality with perhaps some useful and interesting ideas to ponder if you fancy a diversion into obscurity.
What these academic pursuits share is their reliance on ideas which cannot, are not or will not be empirically tested and the rest of the academic evidence being built on this shaky foundations with fractal levels of obscurity and self referential language. They have more in common with a religious cult than an academic endeavour. Therefore absolutely fertile ground for lead swingers and charlatans.
This particular area has an inbuilt defence mechanism to academic challenge as anyone who questions the Emperor's clothes is a horrible racist and risks ostracisation or loss of tenure.
It would be amusing if the cultivation, nurturing and dissemination of grievance wasn't so corrosive.
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