JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Students, colleagues and supporters of the British sociologist Jason Arday have been holding vigils in recent days to remember the late academic. Arday was found dead in London on Friday. Authorities have not released an official cause of death. In 2023, Arday became the youngest Black professor at Cambridge University, assuming a job as a professor of sociology of education. But he resigned earlier this month following allegations of plagiarism. And he wrote in a statement, the relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.
Professor Shaun Harper has written about the intense media scrutiny of Arday as well as how the scholar's death has reverberated in Black academic circles. He's a professor of public policy, education and business at the University of Southern California. Welcome.
SHAUN HARPER: Thanks for having me.
SUMMERS: So to start, you write in your piece that you did not know Arday or his work, but your story for Inside Higher Ed, it's called the "The Fatal, Familiar Takedown Of Jason Arday." What was it about that story that's been so familiar for you?
HARPER: Yeah, well, let me start by expressing my sincerest condolences to Jason's family and those who actually knew and loved him. As I indicated in the piece, I did not know him either by name or reputation until a few weeks ago when my inboxes were just flooded with links to news stories and social media posts about his alleged plagiarism. And, you know, that was really familiar to me in a really disgusting way. What I mean by that is so many journalists and people in the court of global public opinion had immediately jumped to the presumption of guilt. And they were just piling on and piling on and piling on to Professor Arday. And that part was so familiar to me because I've experienced it myself. But I've also seen so many other Black male academicians be treated that way.
SUMMERS: You learned of Arday's death from a faculty friend, a younger colleague you call another extraordinarily accomplished Black male scholar. I wonder, can you tell me a little bit about the conversation, the interaction you two had following his passing?
HARPER: Yeah, so I had been following the story for days. It was, in fact, another Black male academic who sent me the link to the announcement about Professor Arday's death. And, you know, honestly, in that moment, I began to mourn a person that I didn't know. But I also began, in that exchange with my colleague, to engage in a form of collective mourning. You know, mourning not just Jason Arday but also mourning other Black men who have been dragged in the same way but also men like my colleague, whose present and future are so inspiringly bright. You know, this is a person who is so gifted. And, you know, in the moment, it made me worry about him and about, you know, generations of other Black male academicians who will come after us who will endure the same kind of scrutiny and undeserved dragging in the courts of both academic and public opinion.
SUMMERS: Do you fear at all that it might have a chilling effect on Black people who are considering entering academia, who might not see it as a space for them, who might not see it as a place that's safe for them?
HARPER: I hope not. We need more Black scholars to diversify colleges and universities here in the U.S. and around the globe for sure. Let me also say, part of the work that I do with corporations and other organizations entails doing assessments of the workplace racial climate. I hear time and time and time again from Black women professionals as well as their Black male counterparts that the punishment inequities are real and that they have devastating effects on their mental health, their professional reputations and their advancement. So what I'm ultimately saying here is that the tragedy of Jason Arday in the context of higher education also happens in journalism and media organizations, in federal and state government workspaces, corporations, professional sports teams and leagues and elsewhere where Black people help to make those organizations diverse.
SUMMERS: There has just been so much discourse around this situation about where accountability lies. What responsibility do you think the educational and academic systems around Jason Arday have here?
HARPER: Yeah, look, I want to be really clear. We still do not yet know the cause of Jason Arday's death. I do think that we have multiple responsibilities here in education. One is to insist on due process and rigorous investigations. We also have a responsibility to teach students at all levels what plagiarism is, how it shows up. You know, part of that is on us.
SUMMERS: Shaun, I want to put a question to you that you raise in your piece. It's this one - how can the academic community better support scholars who might someday find themselves in a position similar to the one that Jason Arday found himself in?
HARPER: Yeah, I think, first off, people got to stop gossiping. How can we not rush to judgment before an outcome of an investigation is rendered? Even if the outcome of that investigation confirms wrongdoing, how do we help that person envision what redemption could look like? We should ask that person what support she, he or they need from the larger community. My sense is that far too few people did that in this tragedy concerning Jason Arday's takedown.
SUMMERS: Shaun Harper is a professor at the University of Southern California. His piece for Inside Higher Ed is called "The Fatal, Familiar Takedown Of Jason Arday." Shaun, thank you.
HARPER: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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