LONDON, Aug. 15 -- Jason Arday had reached what he called "the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure." He wrote that in his resignation letter in early August, leaving behind the sociology professorship he had held at Cambridge University since 2023, when the institution made him its youngest Black professor in its 800-year history. On Friday afternoon, emergency services found him unresponsive at a flat in Battersea, south London. He was 41.

His death, confirmed by multiple outlets on Friday night, came at the end of a year in which Arday had faced an escalating campaign of allegations about his PhD thesis, including claims that he had plagiarized portions of it. Doubts were also raised about some of his stat...