It is a few hours after being informed that Ed has died over the weekend that I write these words. Dr Ed Rooksby was my Politics Tutor at Ruskin College, Oxford but that is hardly a fitting description of one of the kindest and most gentle men I have had the privilege of knowing.
I can only guess at the amount of essay deadline extension requests that Ed had to sign for me over the three years I was at Ruskin but, despite this dark and muscular physical appearance, he was a man who oozed warmth and care to all who took the time to get to know him.
Like most good academics, he was not without the odd moment of social awkwardness. I remember going for a date with my now fiancée, Zosh, at a trendy café on Walton Street only to, upon leaving, see Ed chatting to a date of his own on the next table along! We waved at each other and both exchanged a (slightly feeble sounding) “hi!” before I left with Zosh. Ed was not a believer dressing up to match the aesthetic of the dreaming spires of Oxford. The only time I cannot remember him sporting a tracksuit was during my graduation when opted for a, hardly worn, pristine looking suit.
While his sense of dress might have been considered low brow by some, his mind was incredible. The way he could talk effortlessly about virtually any concept in academic political theory was unmatched. His lecture style was surprisingly “old school” – a delivery of his thoughts on a particular concept that would come out like a long stream of consciousness. He used to worry he was boring us – the truth was we were all enthralled. Ed was able to present concepts that could easily have seemed dead to us as things that were very much alive in his mind. One could not help but find him engaging.
Ed’s had a witty sense of humour that truly excelled on Twitter. Whenever I had a bad day I would oftern scroll though his Tweets. They would range from reflections on the state of the left today though to musings of popular culture to oftern grittily real and sometimes hilarious reflections on academic life, such as this recent gem:
Ed was also capable of offering the occasional witty line in person too. In my first year at Ruskin, I passed him on the stairs and surprised him by saying that I wanted to find out more about postmodernism and enquiring if he had any recommendations. His response – “oh dear.” He later invited me up to his office and lent me a book on Nietzsche and the postmodernist tradition with a warning that it was not very good and advice that Terry Eagleton’s The Illusions of Postmodernism was much better. This introduced me to Eagleton’s considerable output – something that remains a staple of much of my research.
As well as being a gifted teacher and mentor, Ed’s research output, despite his own admissions that he oftern struggled with writing, is very admirable and varied. A personal favourite of mine was a paper published in the prestigious Science & Society journal in 2012 titled ‘The Relationship Between Liberalism and Socialism‘. Even if one disagrees with the theoretical arguments of this paper it is objectively a fine article and very useful. I was even about to cite this in an essay I am working on currently.
If there is any area that I wish Ed had published on more, it would have been his thoughts on the philosophy of John Gray (of Straw Dogs and Black Mass fame). Ed’s thesis that Gray’s thought represents the logical conclusion of a inherently reactionary postmodernism is an angle on Gray’s theory that is under explored in the current literature. Ed’s notes towards a book he was writing on this, from one of his lectures I remember attending, can still be seen.
Aside form his published work though, a far more vital legacy Ed leaves is the minds of his students. I personally believe Ed to have been instrumental in much of my own interlectual formation and (if I could have found a way of making that sound less pretentious) I would have love to have told him that one day.
Other than the occasional friendly exchange on Twitter, one of the last things Ed and I discussed was China Miéville’s Introduction to the Verso edition of Thomas Moor’s Utopia. Ed was teaching a class on it at his academic home in York (Ed completed his PhD at York and returned there after what can only be described as an ‘implosion’ that Ruskin has struggled to recover from) and I sent him this in the hopes that it might be helpful in his efforts. I heard back from him after a while, and he confirmed that it had indeed been helpful. Looking back over it now, I am struck by one of China’s lines: “We must learn to hope with teeth.” I think Ed would have appreciated this, his fondness for English Literature would have allowed him to appreciate the work of someone who is equally capable of writing fiction as well as academic work. More than this though – I think Ed would have appreciated the sentiment of that line. People who might not have known Ed might have found him to be overly pessimistic. He was more than this, he actively avoided optimism and was thus always truly hopeful.
Rest in Power comrade. We will all miss you.
