From Cambridge to Indian campuses, a similar playbook hounds the marginalised

Newslaundry · Aug 19, 2026

Early this year, we were in Manchester to attend the British Sociological Association’s 75th annual conference. Sitting among hundreds of academics, we were deeply intrigued by the title of Professor Jason Arday, the former Cambridge scholar’s plenary talk – ‘Wanted dead or alive: The playbook’. Arday, with great enthusiasm but also visible pain, laid it out for all of us. In a chillingly prophetic way, he discussed how Black, Asian, Minority and Ethnic community scholars who could establish themselves across elite educational institutions within the UK and the US have been on the academic…