Cambridge’s Youngest Black Professor Speaks on Institutional Racism and Legacies of Slavery

Cambridge’s Youngest Black Professor, Jason Arday, talks about his plans to modernise the university to address problems of institutional racism, accessibility, mental health and disabilities

Jason Arday

The content of the article has been revised, after discussion with Jason Arday. A variety of incredibly complex issues that are open to being misinterpreted were addressed during the interview. This article has been amended based on language use and tone in a move to avoid such misinterpretations unintentionally made during the editing process.  

Cambridge’s youngest black professor, Jason Arday, says that the number of Black professors in the UK is a “stain on the sector” and a “consequence of institutional racism”. 

 Arday, 38, says that Cambridge and the sector more broadly needs to “metaphorically, physically and literally modernise”. Institutions across the sector, more broadly need to modernise to make spaces accessible and develop more flexibility to accommodate ways of being and knowing”  

Our discussion traverses equally serious terrain as we discuss Cambridge’s legacy of slavery, including objections by a fellow in Gonville & Caius to a report authored by the college’s slavery researcher. For Arday, Cambridge has “an opportunity to think about reparative acts and engage important stakeholders: black students, black staff and black historians”. 

Arday’s position is clear as day: there is a “clear mandate for institutions to work with key stakeholders to engage in reparative acts with regards to the atrocities associated with slavery”. 

While “quantifying the costs of slavery in fiscal terms is near impossible”, Arday believes Cambridge along with other institutions need to commit to “fiscal reparation and profound apologies acknowledging the pain caused by the atrocities of slavery”. He is keen to praise the work of Jesus College, where Arday is an incoming Fellow, and its college Master, Sonita Alleyne, for kick-starting a movement for restituting the Benin Bronzes, artefacts looted from Nigeria.

Arday believes that the “archaic and medieval practices at Oxbridge are not facilitatory for people with neurodivergence”. “The sheer magnitude” of entering the “huge machine” of Cambridge can be “disorientating”, he explains– even more so for “neurodivergent people navigating a neurotypical world”. Arday was diagnosed with autism and global development delay at the age of 3, being unable to speak until the age of 11 and learning to read at 18. “A lot of social experiences can be overstimulating- are there adaptations that can be made?”, he contemplates.   

Arday tells me about his close connection to Lord Simon Woolley, Principal of Homerton College –  who he attributes the monikers “The Great Uplifter” and the “Great Facilitator” to – telling me a story he’s never publicly shared about how they met. Woolley mentored him in 2017  in a “highly prestigious and selective” parliamentary scheme for “the next generation of black politicians”. After an opening speech in former Commons speaker John Bercow’s house, the scheme concluded with press interviews. “Simon tapped me on the shoulder– the first thing I thought was ‘have I done something wrong’.  Simon continued. ‘Remember what I’ve said: the moment comes and you have to be ready. It’s the moment now: ‘Jason you’re going to be on the BBC and ITV in 5,4,3,2,1 …’”. Arday pensively concludes “when you’re around Simon, he makes you stand taller and have more pride in yourself.” 

Cambridge can “change the way you are”, Arday suggests. “People should come as they are without changing– it undermines freedom and a sense of belonging”.   

“What’s really sad is enforced assimilation of people to fit into ways of thinking and being’ which can be quite deficit, exclusionary and elitist’. His advice to Cambridge students is simple: feel “free to be who you are”.   

 Arday tries to take a step away from what he’s previously described as the “very selfish, very egotistical, very individualistic” nature of academia. The “accent of charity is the centre of my identity and belies something greater than yourself”– this sense of selflessness was drilled into him upon visiting a “homeless shelter for Christmas” aged 18, raising over £5 million to date. “From poverty and struggle come necessity.” 

“Education is one of the greatest vehicles towards becoming socially mobile.” Arday is committed to “purposefully engaging in outreach work”, and he believes the Foundation Year is a “pep on the university’s shoulder …. it’s hugely promising … but more can be done”.    

Arday commutes from London to Cambridge. Such conscious actions help to prevent his identity becoming submerged in academia. He tells me his favourite thing to do in town is “getting a shortbread biscuit from Gail’s, outside the Cambridge station”– which he treats himself to after completing his to-do list. Increasingly caught up in back to back meetings, he quips that “I’ve not treated myself in quite a while”. 

When prompted to recount his own experiences in academia, Arday frankly admits he has been held to a “different set of rules– from credentials to experience at every stage of his career”. 

“The mechanisms for appointment and very narrow parameters of selection criteria definitely do not favour ethnic minority people in academia, particularly black women in academia, this needs to be addressed immediately”. 

“Black people, without generalising, are disenfranchised. Casual racism is normalised in the vernacular of British culture. Membership to ‘Britishness’ is real. If you are not compliant with this membership, there is a hostile reception– if you don’t like it, Leave.”, Arday argues. The “nature of the beast” of racism is brought about by a “mechanism of division and subjugation […]effective through its covert means”, as we discuss the findings of a Cambridge-led survey which finds 45% of Black Britons do not feel proud to be British. 

“We live in a world bereft of kindness, love and empathy.  Do the best you can and help people in need as much as they need”. Arday’s philosophy is so simple– yet so profound when uttered by a Cambridge Professor determined to tackle the most pressing issues in the University so openly and transparently. 

Jason Arday is here to contribute towards making Cambridge “more reflective of a multicultural and multiethnic society” and modernise the University “proactively and in collaboration with the wider university community ”. 

With thanks to Ralph Jeffreys, Bella Shorrock, Abby Reyes and Ella McCartney.