Arday: Man Who Learned To Speak At 11 & Read At 18 Becomes A Cambridge University Professor

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” – Nido Qubein

According to the BBC, Jason Arday, who was born and brought up in south London, was given an autism and general developmental delay diagnosis when he was three years old. Mencap defines global developmental delay as when children pass developmental milestones, such as learning to read, later than is typical. Arday did, however, have some thoughts that were unusual for a youngster his age.

“Why are some people homeless?” he wondered before he could speak. “Why is there war?” Despite his challenges, he became the youngest Black professor ever at Cambridge.

Sandro Sandri, his college teacher, and mentor was instrumental in helping him learn to read and write. He made the decision to pursue a degree in Physical Education and Education Studies at the University of Surrey. According to CBS, he worked at pharmacies and grocery stores to pay for his studies.

He began working as a PE lecturer at universities after receiving his degree, but at the age of 22, he already had the goal of doing postgraduate studies.

Sandro told me, ‘I think you can do this – I think we can take on the world and win,’” he said. Arday spent his evenings writing academic papers and studying sociology. But it didn’t come easily to him at first.

“When I started writing academic papers, I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I did not have a mentor, and no one ever showed me how to write. Everything I submitted got violently rejected. The peer review process was so cruel, it was almost funny, but I treated it as a learning experience and, perversely, began to enjoy it.”

Arday’s experience as a teacher in a historically underserved community gives him a distinctive perspective on higher education. He, therefore, has first-hand knowledge of the institutional racism in schooling.

He also attributes a large portion of his work’s pop culture inspirations to his mother, who exposed him to a wide range of music when he was younger to help him learn English.

In 2018, he earned a lectureship at Roehampton University and eventually published his first academic work. After that, he was hired by Durham University as an associate professor of sociology.

When he was hired as a professor of sociology of education at the University of Glasgow in 2021, he became one of the youngest academics in the UK. He is now, at the age of 37, the youngest Black professor at the esteemed Cambridge University, and he is considering what his position can signify for others who have had similar hardships.

“Hopefully, being in a place like Cambridge will provide me with the leverage to lead that agenda nationally and globally,” he said.

Along with Dr. Chantelle Lewis from the University of Oxford, Arday is currently conducting research on neurodiversity and Black students. He acknowledges the advancement but still feels his work is incomplete.

“Cambridge is already making significant changes and has achieved some notable gains in attempting to diversify the landscape,” he said. “But there is so much more to be done — here and across the sector.”

In its efforts to diversify the landscape, Cambridge is already making substantial adjustments and has made some noteworthy progress, according to him. But so much more has to be done, both locally and across the sector.

He acknowledges that making progress is challenging and calls for careful effort. Achieving this correctly is an art; it involves genuine diplomacy and requires everyone to be motivated to cooperate, he said.