The University of Cambridge has been under fire lately for the plagiarism scandal of one of its star professors, Jason Arday.
Despite originally not only denying the allegations, but also alleging racial bias on the part of his accusers, Professor Arday has now resigned from his position at the university as Professor of Sociology of Education. His plagiarism scandal was exacerbated by the false claims of accomplishments he had made in the past, such as playing football professionally as a child, or being one of the subjects in the 1964 British documentary Seven Up.
Now, the stir around Professor Arday’s case has led some people to discover the absurd doctoral thesis topics researched by Cambridge University students.
The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209, making it the oldest university in Europe still in operation. That is why people were even more puzzled to find out that its professors are now supervising PhD thesis topics with titles such as Unsexed beings: constructing gender, humanness, and agency through the use of the word “unsex” in Late Modern British society and writing; Legal Mobilization by Black Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer (LBQ) Womxn in Kenya and South Africa; or In Her Own Words: A Study of Women’s Voices in Contemporary White Supremacy and Far-Right Online Hate.
All these are real doctoral theses, written by students at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies. The abstract for each is available on the university’s official website, along with their authors’ profiles.
For instance, the research interests of Waruguru Gaitho, author of the Womxn in Kenya and South Africa thesis, include Queer lawfare, African sexualities, Black Feminist Thought, and Queer of Color critique, as we can learn from her profile on the university website.
X user Basil the Great has pointed out a number of other peculiar doctoral thesis topics in his post. These include: The Political Economy of Female Circumcision by Mamasa Camara, The Sexually Sociological: Gay Masculinity, Intimacy and the (Un)queer State by Bingchang Sun; as well as one with the wordy title Exploring gendered embodiment in transgender and gender-diverse adolescents at the intersection of exercise and eating behaviours, social inclusion, and mental health: Towards a desire-centred approach in paediatric gender-affirming healthcare and research by Sarah Knaus.
To give you more examples of the academic work taking place at Cambridge University, one of the other PhD students referenced above, Bingchang Sun’s research interests include Queer Theory, Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities, Feminist epistemology, and Intimate relationships.
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