Iain Edgar: More a reflection than obituary

By Gareth Hamilton

Writing this piece is not something that is by any means a joy, but I wish to begin with an anecdote about Iain that makes me smile even thinking of it. (I did overhear him once telling the person sitting beside him before I gave a paper that he was looking forward to it because it was likely humour was involved, so I am sure he would not mind. Smiles are better than tears.) The event took place in what must have been the only room in Durham University not supplied with a smoke detector. Our group of masters and doctoral students on a course on fieldwork were to be introduced to the methods Iain explained in his Guide to Imagework (2004). He had brought his drum to create some atmosphere while we students were to envisage the journey in our minds to visit a wise person to ask a question that concerned us about our upcoming fieldwork. He also lit some herbs wrapped inside newspaper to, I think, augment the atmosphere in a multisensory way. In any case, when finished – the drum now silenced – he extinguished this collection of smouldering materials, opened the window and left the remnants on the windowsill outside. Unfortunately, in the excitement the embers had not been fully put out, nor the window tightly closed. The smoke continued to enter the room, the air getting more filled with the fumes, our vision of Iain – who was sitting facing away from the source behind him, quite unaware – getting less and less clear. We sat there, and I wondered when anyone might say something before we might expire from the fumes. Now, eventually someone did – thankfully. However, with the fun of drawing our journeys, and my neighbour’s drawing of just one big drum that was all she could think of during the task, it was a most fun experience.

On one hand, I think for me as a student, for someone doing a second masters after coming from a modern and medieval languages background rather revelatory – an experience imbued with wellbeing. This is not surprising given that Iain’s methods were developed while researching ‘disturbed adolescents’ in a healing community (2004: 120). This was a method designed to encounter our own feelings as ‘informants’ as well as researchers, and to envisage things in the noumenal world. He would often tell the story of a module at Durham’s then-campus in Stockton, where students were unhappy, and creating images of the blocks to their progress helped very much to improve the situation (see 2004: 32ff.). I attended other sessions led by him, the last in-person one being at the ASA conference in Exeter in 2015, to engage further and was pleased to see that others engaged too. Further, Iain had a deep interest in pedagogy. He published on anthropology education in Europe with Dorle Dracklé and Thomas Schippers (2003, 2004), and education in Pakistan in general with his great friend Steve Lyon (2010), another of my inspiring teachers.

On the other hand, I must admit that it was still unusual compared to simple interviewing or a focus group. Thankfully, with his interest in education and health, to make people comfortable Iain had thought of that, breaking the ice in sessions with the passing round of an imaginary bowl of soup. Now, if one thinks that handing round imagined bowls of soup is a bit unserious, I think it is rather the opposite.  Iain would very kindly agree over the years to give an online session, before such teaching became common during the pandemic, to my first-year bachelors students at the University of Latvia. When I felt that I might be asking too often, I would try to lead this myself. In a room of students from around the world (if mostly Latvian), the insights into people’s views of kinship (who made the soup, whose bowl), nourishment and memory among others was such a rich experience. I would send Iain some Latvian products as a thank you, or if I had been in Slovenia, some coffee that he told me he liked after visiting. He, with no need, sent me things in the return from the UK, such as chocolate unavailable here, or even a book about something we had once discussed. This only shows his deep kindness and thoughtfulness. If there is one lesson from the smoke-related situation described above, the lack of noticing the thickening atmosphere was his seriousness in making sure we were all feeling well and being deeply interested in our learning!

I would also add that the soup should also not mislead into areas of unseriousness for other reasons. Iain’s work showed the deep importance of the noumenal in our current world and how it affects events at the highest levels. His latter research on dreaming, in particular in Islam (2011, 2015), exploring, for example, the importance of dreaming as inspirations to action for jihadis, was both fascinating and compelling. It was always a pleasure to hear Iain talk about this, his deep fascination captivating his audience – particularly including my Latvian students who were simultaneously learning about the anthropology of religion.

It is never easy to describe someone who has departed and do them the full justice they deserve, but Iain was someone who will both cause sadness at his passing and joy at thinking of the time spent with him. I detect deep engagement with Iain’s academic work and his engagement with the broader community in the tributes paid to him on social media after his passing. From the heights of academia to the local working man’s club of which he was a member, he will hardly be forgotten.

References

Dracklé, Dorle, Iain R. Edgar & Thomas K. Schippers (eds.). 2003. Educational Histories of European Social Anthropology. Oxford & NY: Berghahn.

Dracklé, Dorle & Iain R. Edgar (eds). 2004. Current Policies and Practices in European Social Anthropology Education. Oxford & NY: Berghahn.

Edgar, Iain R. 2004. A Guide to Imagework: Imagination-based research methods. London: Routledge.

Edgar, Iain R. 2011. The Dream in Islam: from Qur’anic tradition to Jihadist inspiration. Oxford & NY: Berghahn.

Edgar, Iain R. 2015. ‘The dreams of Islamic State’, Perspectives on Terrorism, 9.4: 72-84

Lyon, Stephen M. & Iain R. Edgar (eds). 2010. Shaping a nation: an examination of education in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.