The Arday Affair

The reinstatement by Ghent University of a key figure in the Jason Arday affair followed pressure from Trump’s State Department. It reveals a wider ideology of ‘injustice as illusion’. Karam Bales reports

Nathan Cofnas and America’s Protection for Anti-Black Racism

Nathan Cofnas’ reinstatement by Ghent University was a striking moment, shedding new light on those seeking to rehabilitate discredited theories of race science under the banner of academic freedom.

The academic’s July Substack post, which made allegations of serial plagiarism against Jason Arday, Professor of Sociology of Education at Cambridge University, ignited a far-right campaign against the black academic, who later resigned from his position and was then found dead at his home in August.

Cofnas, an advocate of race science and eugenics, describes himself as a ‘race realist’. His role at a Cambridge University college ended in 2024 after he wrote that in a true meritocracy black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment”.

After Arday’s death, Cofnas provoked more debate over free speech and the limits of academic freedom when Belgium’s Ghent University suspended him from his position as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences pending an investigation.