ACADEMICS: Plagiarism claims against Professor Arday raise deeper questions about race and academia
The plagiarism claims against the young black professor of Cambridge University have brought his illustrious academic career to an abrupt end. But Professor Arday was already guilty before he committed any alleged transgressions. Added to that, he may be guilty of many things — but not creative writing. This raises the question of whether creative writing can legitimately be seen as a branch of sociology, and as a legitimate site of knowledge. Furthermore, can knowledge production borrow from the unreal in a surrealist impulse?
Prof Arday is a sociology professor accused of generously borrowing from colleagues without acknowledgment. In the academy, such unacknowledged borrowing is seriously frowned upon, more so if you are a black academic accused of "stealing" from the white establishment. Being black is already an identity of the unethical. The establishment has already judged you; it is just looking for evidence to nail you. If no credible evidence exists, the establishment creates all manner of fiction which is then elevated into fact, and the lynching is thereby mandated. Such creative defence as proffered by the professor is not available to the black.
