Vigil mourns Jason Arday after media scrutiny

Mourners gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square to remember Jason Arday, the former Cambridge University professor whose death followed weeks of media coverage over plagiarism allegations he denied, as his family said they were “still coming to terms” with their loss.

Arday, 41, became Cambridge University’s youngest Black professor when he was appointed in 2023. He was found dead at an address in south London on Aug. 14, two days after Cambridge said it would investigate the circumstances around his appointment. He had resigned as professor of sociology of education on Aug. 5 after the university said it would look into claims about his career.

In a statement read at Monday’s vigil by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Arday’s family said “the public cruelty Jason was subjected to was too much for any man to bear.” They said they wanted him remembered “for the wonderful person he was and all that he achieved.”

“A selfless and gentle soul, he tirelessly uplifted others through his words and actions,” the family said. “His achievements were great and we do not want misrepresentations about his character to overshadow them.”

The vigil was organised by Stand Up to Racism, which had asked attendees to wear black and bring flowers. The BBC reported that 2,000 or more people attended, while Al Jazeera described the crowd as tens of thousands. Many carried flowers and signs, including messages reading “Rest in power Professor Jason Arday” and “Stop racist media now.”

Several speakers accused sections of the media of mistreating Arday. Labour MP Diane Abbott said he had faced a “vicious and bitter media campaign” from “people who didn’t believe a black man should be a Cambridge professor.” She added: “He must have felt that if he resigned, the attacks on him would stop. But in fact, they got even worse. This was a campaign against all of us.”

Lord Simon Woolley, principal of Homerton College at the University of Cambridge, told the crowd that when he met Arday last week, Arday said critics were “hounding me to death.” Filmmaker and activist Misan Harriman said: “The legacy media crossed every line in the treatment of Jason,” adding, “Jason should still be here today.”

Al Jazeera reported that singer Beverley Knight and Labour MP Dawn Butler also addressed the vigil. Butler said: “We let him down, and I’m sorry to his family; we couldn’t protect him.” Knight described “the destruction of a brilliant man, for sport, ignited by jealousy and fuelled by hatred.”

The plagiarism row began after Nathan Cofnas, an academic who describes himself as a “race realist” and who was dismissed from a Cambridge role in 2024, said he had found numerous instances of plagiarism in Arday’s work. Cofnas’s post had been terminated after a backlash to his view that under a true meritocracy Black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.”

Al Jazeera reported that Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded Arday’s doctorate, said it had cleared him of plagiarism. Cambridge initially dismissed the allegations as a “vile campaign” to undermine Arday’s credibility, Al Jazeera reported, but later opened a review of his appointment.

Cambridge University Chancellor Chris Smith, Lord Smith of Finsbury, said it was possible both to defend academic integrity and to reject what he called a “racist feeding frenzy” around Arday. “Where criticisms of plagiarism arise, about any academic, whoever they are, ensure that they are rigorously investigated,” he said, while also refusing “to join in a racist feeding frenzy over a particular academic.”

More than 90,000 people had signed a Good Law Project petition seeking an inquiry into media coverage of Arday, according to the BBC; Al Jazeera put the figure at more than 96,000 by Monday. London Inner South Coroner’s Court said an investigation into the cause of death could take several weeks, after which the coroner will decide whether an inquest will take place.