03 World

LONDON — An inquest opened Wednesday into the sudden death earlier this month of Jason Arday, a Cambridge University professor who faced a storm of plagiarism accusations.

Arday, 41, who became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor in 2023, was found dead at an address in south London on Aug. 13, days after he resigned his post as professor of sociology of education following intense media scrutiny of his credentials and many of the other claims he had made about his accomplishments outside of academia.

The inquest opened with a short hearing at London Inner South Coroner’s Court. Any deaths in the U.K. that are deemed to exhibit uncertainties of one form or another are investigated by a coroner.

“The various reports have given me reason to suspect that Professor Arday died an unnatural death 12 days ago,” said senior coroner Dr. Julian Morris. “It therefore follows that I must open an investigation.”

Police said at the time of his death that it was being treated as “unexpected” but not suspicious.

Questions about Arday’s qualifications were raised publicly last month by Nathan Cofnas, a one-time Cambridge philosophy researcher who left the university after his critique of diversity, equity and inclusion programs sparked widespread protests. Cofnas previously argued that in a meritocracy, Black people “would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.” Cofnas was last week suspended from his post at Ghent University in Belgium.