Obituary: Alan Cawson
Friends at Sussex, former colleagues and students, and others in the Brighton community have been paying tribute to Professor Alan Cawson, who died last week - very suddenly, but peacefully.
A political scientist, specializing in firstly in corporatism and later digital transformation, Alan worked at Sussex until his retirement from the University in 2002 for a career change.
Alan studied at Sussex (and Oxford) in the 1960s, returned as a lecturer in 1974, and became the first Sussex graduate to be appointed as a professor here, in Politics in 1994.
His interest in the political economy of the electronics industry led him to work closely with Professor Roger Silverstone and the Media Subject Group to set up the MA in Digital Media in 1995 - one of the first postgraduate courses of its kind in the world. He joined the Media group formally as Professor of Digital Media in 2000.
He was also an active honorary fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) and the Sussex European Institute (SEI), as well as being closely involved with the Sussex Innovation Centre and the Social and Political Thought programme.
Following his retirement from the University in 2002, he engaged with digital media business and consultancy, as well as social justice and community projects.
One of the most noteworthy of these was the Fiankoma Project, set up with Alan’s partner, Sarah Lee, and linking schools in Brighton with schools in Fiankoma village, and in Cape Coast, Ghana, using digital media to explore issues of common concern; many MA students and faculty from Media and Film, from Education and elsewhere were involved in the project.
Alan also remained an active researcher, he recently served as Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board of the Brighton Fuse project, which brought the local creative-digital cluster to national attention that he had helped to stimulate.
He was also working on the corporatocracy and neo-liberalism, critically re-thinking his earliest work in the light of contemporary developments, when he died.
Alan’s foundational work in digital media at Sussex means he left a lasting contribution at Sussex.
He was also a generous, funny, and warm-hearted man who will be sadly missed by the many people who knew him, who worked with him, and who he helped in one way or another.
Dr Jon Sapsed, Principal Investigator of the Brighton Fuse projects, and Alan’s student from 1995-99, described Alan as a polymath in the best traditions of Sussex, adding: “Those of us who were his doctoral students were always uplifted by his vibrant ideas and optimistic outlook. Many people are now shocked and saddened but reflecting on a very special man.”
Professor Caroline Bassett, Media and Film