A public vigil honouring the life of academic Jason Arday will be held outside the Scottish Parliament on Saturday afternoon.
The former Glasgow and Cambridge professor, 41, was found dead in his Battersea home last Friday, following weeks of intense media scrutiny over allegations of plagiarism and fabrications about his accomplishments.
The vigil, which has been organised by Educators for Peace in conjunction with Stand Up to Racism, the University and College Union, and the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland, will take place on Horse Wynd near Holyrood at 2pm.
A notice advertising the event reads: “Join fellow educators and community members as we gather in remembrance of a brilliant academic, mentor, and pioneer whose life and work leave a lasting legacy.
“Come together to honour his memory, hold space for grief, and reflect on the compassion, dignity and due process every human being deserves. All are welcome.”
More than 30,000 people attended a vigil in London’s Trafalgar Square on Monday, where supporters of Professor Arday characterised his death as a “public execution” caused by a “vicious campaign” against him.
Lord Simon Woolley, a friend of Professor Arday, told the crowd: “This wonderful man never stole a bag of crisps. He was exonerated from plagiarism.
“But the dogs of hell, the hounds of hell, sought to pursue any inaccuracy that they could to say Jason is a bad man, Jason doesn’t deserve to be in Cambridge.
“There needs to be some reckoning. There needs to be some justice.”
Professor Arday, who became the youngest Black professor in the history of Cambridge University in 2023, resigned his position on August 5 as media coverage of his life and work continued to mount.
An investigation by Liverpool John Moores University, where the academic received his PhD in 2015, cleared Professor Arday of plagiarism.
Read more:
- British academic and author Jason Arday found dead
- Jason Arday case shows the persecution of minorities has reached bloodthirsty levels
- Professor Jason Arday quits Cambridge University over plagiarism row
At the time of his death, both Cambridge University and Glasgow University, where Professor Arday worked between 2022 and 2023, had launched investigations into his respective appointments.
In his resignation letter, which was published online, Professor Arday wrote: “This decision should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship or in the values that first brought me to Cambridge.
"Nor should it be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me."
He added: "It is simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure."
Professor Arday is survived by his wife and two children.
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