The British man who couldn’t read and write until he was 18 became Cambridge’s youngest black professor

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Diagnosed with autism in childhood, Jason Arday only learned to speak at the age of 11. Now, at 37, he is set to become the youngest black professor at a university in England. At age 37, Jason Arday is about to become the youngest black professor at the University of Cambridge Personal Archive Diagnosed in childhood with autism and global developmental delay, Jason Arday only started talking at age 11 — and learned to read and write at age 11. 18. Now aged 37, he is set to become the youngest black professor at Cambridge University in the UK. Though he couldn’t speak, little Jason was already fervently questioning the world around him. He remembers asking himself, “Why do some people live on the streets? Why are there wars?” Born and raised in Clapham, southwest London, Arday is now a sociologist. He cites moments that influenced his upbringing, such as watching Nelson Mandela’s release on television and South Africa’s iconic 1995 Rugby World Cup triumph. feel compelled to take action. “I remember thinking that if I wasn’t successful as a professional soccer or snooker player, I wanted to save the world,” he reveals. His mother played a key role in developing his skills and self-confidence. She introduced him to a wide variety of music, hoping that it would help him conceptualize the language. But it also sparked a deep interest in popular culture, which characterized some of his research. With the support of his mentor, university professor and friend Sandro Sandri, Arday finally started to read and write in his late teens. He studied Physical Education and Education Studies at the University of Surrey in the UK. And then he became a Physical Education teacher. Arday says that growing up in a relatively disadvantaged region and working as a school teacher allowed him to see up close the systemic inequalities faced by ethnic minority youth in education. At the age of 22, he became interested in doing postgraduate studies and mentioned the idea to his mentor. “Sandro told me, ‘I think you can do it—I think we can conquer the world and win,'” he recalls. “Looking back, that was the first time I really believed in myself.” “A lot of academics say they ended up in this business by accident, but from that moment on, I was determined and focused — I knew that was going to be my goal.” Learning to become an academic, however, was very difficult, especially since he had little practical training or guidance in this regard. During the day, Arday worked as a higher education PE teacher. At night, he wrote academic articles and studied sociology. “When I started writing academic papers, I had no idea what I was doing,” he says. “I didn’t have a mentor, and nobody ever showed me how to write. Everything I submitted was savagely rejected.” “The peer review process was very cruel, almost funny. But I treated it as a learning experience and, perversely, I grew to enjoy it.” Arday has completed two Masters and a Ph.D. in Education Studies. Asked about when he realized he was a sociologist, he says it was probably around 2015. “Analyzing it now, that’s what I wanted to do.” Eight years later, Arday is poised to become Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge. There are currently five black professors teaching at the university. Official data from the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency show that, in 2021, of the more than 23,000 university professors in the country, only 155 were black. Slated to take up her new role on March 6, Arday has a particular interest in improving the representation of ethnic minorities in higher education. “My work mainly focuses on how we can open doors for more socially disadvantaged people and truly democratize higher education,” he says. In 2018, Arday had his first article published and got a place at the University of Roehampton before moving on to the University of Durham, where he worked as a professor of Sociology. In 2021, he started teaching Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, which made him, at the time, one of the youngest university professors in the United Kingdom. “I hope that being in a place like Cambridge will give me the tools to advance this agenda nationally and internationally,” he says. “Talking about it is one thing; doing it is what matters.” On his current work on neurodiversity and black students, he is collaborating with researcher Chantelle Lewis from the University of Oxford, also in the UK. “Cambridge is already making significant changes and has achieved notable gains in trying to diversify the landscape,” she says. “But there is much more to be done — here and across the industry.” “The university has remarkable people and resources; the challenge is how to use this capital to improve things for everyone and not just for some”, explains the professor. “Doing it right is an art – it takes real diplomacy and everyone needs to be inspired to work together.” “If we want to make education more inclusive, the best tools we have are solidarity, understanding and love.” – Text originally published in

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