A professor accused of plagiarism and inflating his academic credentials is to promote his autobiography at an Edinburgh bookshop next month.
Jason Arday, who resigned from Cambridge University on Thursday, is scheduled to speak about his book Great and Beautiful Things at Topping and Co on September 18.
Described as “an unforgettable book about resilience and love", Professor Arday's autobiography tells the story of his rise to become the youngest Black professor in the history of Oxbridge.
According to Topping and Co's listing for the book, Professor Arday was “diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay at the age of three, and spent much of his non-verbal childhood navigating a system that struggled to understand him”.
Jason Arday has come under scrunity over his academic and personal credentials. (Image: Cambridge University)
The listing adds: “Jason slowly found his voice”, speaking his first word at 11 and learning to read and write at 18.
However, according to The Atlantic, which reviewed Professor Arday’s 2024 book proposal, there are a number of key differences between an initial treatment and the published work.
For example, the proposal states Professor Arday attempted suicide happened before the pandemic, not during, as the memoir suggests.
Similarly, in Great and Beautiful Things, Professor Arday is said to have suffered multiple brain tumours, while the proposal says he survived testicular cancer. The proposal also states that Professor Arday spent several months in a coma as a teenager after being hit by a car, and was forced to spend a year re-learning how to walk and talk.
These details are not mentioned in the published copy.
Tickets for the event on Blenheim Place in the capital are listed at £10 for general admission, £7 for scholars, and £20 with a copy of the book included.
Professor Arday’s appearance will mark a return to Scotland for the academic, who was employed as a professor at the University of Glasgow between January 2022 and March 2023.
The institution announced on Friday that it will investigate the circumstances of his appointment, with a spokesperson remarking: “Jason Arday was employed as Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow, from January 2022 to March 2023. He left the University to take up his role as Professorial Chair at the University of Cambridge.
“The Principal has commissioned a review of the appointment with the aim of understanding all the facts and learning lessons for the future.”
The Herald had revealed on Monday that Professor Arday’s official page on Cambridge’s website listed him as a “Visiting Professor at … the University of Glasgow in the School of Education”.
