UPDATE: Nathan Cofnas has now said he has been suspended by Ghent University.
THE academic who sparked the pile on which preceded a black British professor’s suicide has said he is under investigation by his university.
Nathan Cofnas, a researcher at Ghent University and self-described “race realist”, shared a statement put out by the institution in the wake of former Cambridge professor Jason Arday’s death, which said it had “decided to take appropriate action”.
In a social media post highlighting the statement, Cofnas said: “I am under investigation by my university for discriminating against Arday.”
The statement said: “We attach great importance to academic freedom and to open academic debate, even when views are controversial. However, that freedom is not unlimited. It goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others.
“For this reason, the university takes the recent public statements made by a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University regarding this matter very seriously. Ghent University has decided to take appropriate action within its powers and the applicable framework.
“We do not wish to pre-empt any potential decisions at this stage, in order to maintain objectivity. It is important to be transparent, whilst also respecting the confidentiality inherent in a personnel file.”
Cofnas revived accusations of plagiarism against Prof. Arday in a blog post last month.
He claimed to have found evidence of copying in the sociologist’s work and said he was unfit to have become Cambridge University’s youngest ever black professor.
Cofnas also cast doubt on elements of Prof. Arday’s biography.
The Ghent University researcher has been accused of racism and has made a number of controversial statements including once writing a blog advocating for scientific racism.
He wrote: “Harvard faculty would be recruited from the best of the best students, which means the number of black professors would approach zero per cent.”
The Ghent University statement said: “First and foremost, Ghent University is shocked by the death of Professor Arday. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues and students. His death has also hit our own academic community hard.
“At the same time, we wish to be clear about the values we uphold as a university. Ghent University stands for respect for human dignity and opposes discrimination, hatred and racism.”
It went on: “The death of Professor Arday should prompt reflection. We hope that lessons will be learnt from what has happened regarding the way we treat one another both within and outside the academic world, particularly when people become the subject of public controversy.”
