Musaazi NAMITI | SUNDAY THOUGHT
So, Cambridge Universityās star academic, Dr Jason Arday, was found dead at an address in south London last Friday. The internet has been abuzz with news of his death. And just about everyone with anything to say has said it.
In 2023, when the university hired him as a professor of sociology of education, he was just 37āthe youngest black academic to land such a role at a prestigious British university.
I guess he thanked God for his achievement, as all religious people often do. And I guess he believed, like all religious people, that God gives and takes life.
However, the circumstances surrounding his death clearly show that God did not play any role. We all can create our own death by commission or omission. Countless people do and have done so.
Dr Ardayās life had been upended by accusations of plagiarism in his PhD dissertationāand a host of blatant lies. A few examples: He claimed he had featured in a BBC documentary Seven Up, but it began in 1964, more than 20 years before Dr Arday was born in 1985. He lied that he had run 600 miles between Edinburgh and London in six days.
He lied that he had served as a visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, the University of Glasgow and Ohio State University. He lied that he had raised Ā£5m for a charity.
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When he was confronted with questions about plagiarism, about his barefaced lies, he had no answers. Matters came to a head when, in July, a US academic named Nathan Cofnas exposed his plagiarism in a Substack article. He eventually resignedābut the media, because they had a juicy story worth pursuing, never relented.
Dr Arday had no place to hide. The world had become too small for him. He was founded dead days after his resignation. His death does not bear any evidence of God being responsible at all. Here is a black man who tried to plagiarise his way into academia, was exposed and death followed.
Whatever we want to do with our lives can happen, especially if it is to do with death. While it is sometimes hard to prolong our lives, creating circumstances that can end it is all too easy.
Dr Arday was young and would still be alive and enjoying his job if he had not plagiarised his dissertation, if he had not told liesāall of which created a firestorm of criticism that led to his death.
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š“ Sunday Thought cuts through the noise of prayer, piety and superstition to ask the questions most people avoid. It discusses God, faith and religionānot to preach, but to probe, challenge and sometimes unsettle. Whether you believe, doubt or have stopped looking altogether, Sunday Thought will make you think, question and maybe even rethink everything you thought you knew about the divineāand about life itself.