Ian joined the Department from Nottingham Trent University in January 2010. A political theorist by training, he was an established, well-respected scholar of Marxism when he arrived. The work he produced after his appointment enhanced his reputation and helped raise the profile of political theory at Loughborough.
Committed to the view that the value of theory lay in the practice it inspired, he rejected interpretations that downplayed human agency by emphasising the break between Marx’s ‘early’ philosophical and ‘late’ economic writings. For Ian, Marx was always essentially a humanist whose special contribution to socialist thought was his critique of alienation and concept of freedom. Anyone who worked with him would know this instinctively. Ian was neither quick to judge nor impulsive, but when he spoke in private, it was usually to express his irritation and bewilderment with the injustices arising from careless decision-making or organisational changes that made everyone’s lives more testing.
Resistant to the designation of ‘research outputs’, Ian did not allow the pressure to publish interfere with his research. He leaves a weighty collection of books. The catalogue includes The Hegel-Marx Connection (2001), and The Marx Dictionary (Continuum, 2011), co-edited respectively with Tony Burns and the late Lawrence Wilde, his dear friends from Nottingham Trent; Hegel and Marx: The Concept of Need (1998), Dialectics of the Self: Transcending Charles Taylor (2007), Identity, Politics and the Novel: The Aesthetic Moment (2013) and Political Theory and Film: From Adorno to Žižek (2018).
Ethics and aesthetics were the unifying threads of this work. Ian outlined his idea of the ‘aesthethic self’ in the last chapter of the book on Taylor and developed it in his analysis of contemporary fiction and film. Defining the self as social, complex and constructed through engagement with others, he explored the concept to consider political, economic and cultural resistance to capitalism. His fantastically rich body of work led him to discuss, to name only a few, Adorno, Bloch, Deleuze, Rancière and Kristeva.
Ian’s knowledge of film and literature was equally profound and wide-ranging. There was little he did not know about the work of Ian McEwan, fellow-Liverpudlian Terence Davies or Woody Allen. Yet he wore his scholarship lightly; those who attended the 2012 Utopian Studies Society conference will remember his robust intervention in a debate about redemption and utopia but will likely also recall the convivial dinner when he talked engagingly and animatedly about Keira Knightly’s performance in the film Atonement. He did not persuade us all, but he was enormous fun to be with.
Ian brought his erudition and compassion into every aspect of his professional life. His collegiality, easy-going nature, and unwavering support were especially appreciated by those fortunate enough to have him as a mentor. He was always available when needed, offering guidance and encouragement with kindness and generosity – often accompanied by just the right touch of his characteristic humour, a gentle reminder not to take oneself too seriously.
Patient, encouraging and rigorous, he is remembered by former doctoral researchers as kind and brilliant. Although he was sometimes disappointed by undergraduate students’ lack of engagement, he was sensitive to the constraints on learning and never allowed his frustrations dent his enthusiasm for teaching. The copious information he included in his lecture handouts, coupled with his upbeat, unique style of delivery made him popular. He would often talk to himself while teaching and address students as ‘maties’. He so enjoyed talking to his topic that he would punctuate what he was saying with the call ‘keep up, keep up!’, as he made jabbing motions towards his stack of notes. It was catch phrase, said to every class, no matter how fast the students tapped away.
Ian taught any module he was asked to convene and often took on a considerable burden of work. The staples were courses on democracy and the history of ideas, where he treated students to his extensive knowledge of the primary and secondary literature. His lecture notes on Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Wollstonecraft, Rousseau, Mill, Marx and Rawls are sophisticated, cogent and lucid. Ian liked Ellen Meiskins-Wood’s approach to the history of ideas and would discuss the social and economic conditions in which ideas emerged, not just the ideological context. However, he covered all the intellectual bases with ease, helped students navigate the concepts, appreciate the complexities of interpretation and, above all, the essential role of political theory in politics. And in all this, his distinctive voice came through.
Ian usually kept home and work life separate, but he would sometimes sign off emails with YNWA and he never left a Liverpool FC victory pass unmarked. When Klopp’s team beat Barcelona 4-3 in the 2019 Champions League semi-final, he was seen grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He would also happily let his worlds collide, for example, on chance meetings at the opera, which he greatly enjoyed, (though not as much as the footie). It was obvious from passing conversations that he cherished and was much loved by and his friends and family.
Ian retired in October 2022. He said that he probably had another book in him but that he had no desire to continue writing once he left Loughborough. His sudden, untimely death is all the more devastating for the contentment that he found in retirement.
We share our sense of loss with Sharon, his family and friends. Most of all, we are thankful for the time we had with him and the warmth and humour Ian brought to our lives.