Tributes for the teacher and poet hail him as a gifted writer on a social mission
By RIVERS STOUT— campus@theaggie.org
Joshua Clover, a professor of English and comparative literature who worked at UC Davis beginning in 2003, died April 26, 2025 at 62 years old. Those closest to him -– as well as many members of the general public — will remember him for his political convictions and his radically progressive organizing efforts alongside his role in academia. His cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
“Always economical with his prose,” members of the UC Davis English Department and students said in a statement. “[Clover] captured the complexity of capitalism’s historical development and the particular forms of struggle that attend it with pithy locution and often devastating precision.”
Clover held a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He taught classes on English and poetry and was an avid writer in his own right outside of the classroom.
“Madonna Anno Domini,” Clover’s first book and a collection of poetry, won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, a once-a-year honor given to exceptional first-time authors. Other poetry collections included 2006’s “The Totality for Kids” and 2015’s “Red Epic.” He also wrote “Riot. Strike. Riot.,” published in 2016, a political analysis on the act of rioting.
Clover was often seen at protests around campus and beyond. Most recently, he was at the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event in April of this year, removing signs from local right-wing activist and UC Davis staffer Beth Bourne.
In 2023, he penned a guest opinion for The California Aggie criticizing Charlie Kirk, TPUSA apologists and Chancellor Gary May for allowing the group to be on campus. He could also be regularly seen around pro-Palestine protests and strikes, expressing vocal support for Palestine and arguing in a 2018 post that, as a state, “Israel should be ended.”
“Joshua was a professor, theorist, scholar, editor, and poet, but first and foremost, he was a communist,” the English Department’s statement reads. “Indeed, his political commitments were at the core of everything he did: from the streets to the courthouses, the reading groups to the letter-writing nights, he was a partisan of the real movement wherever it could be found.”
The fire-brand that many have remarked him as being, Clover sparked controversy for a series of anti-police tweets in 2014 that ultimately resulted in unsuccessful calls from California Assemblyman James Gallagher for him to be fired.
“I remember him during that unsuccessful Occupy Oakland-ish action to potentially occupy the Kaiser Center,” Clover’s friend Juliana Spahr said in a written tribute to him published in The Nation. “[Clover motioned] me and my son down an alley and away from the line of police eagerly loading their tear gas rifles.”
Those close to him were just as inclined to bring attention to his love for pop culture and country music, which he wrote lengthy articles about, mixing his passions for music and revolution.
At the time of his death, he was working on a new book manuscript, tentatively titled “Infrastructure and Revolution.”
“He always made a point to acknowledge me, sharing a wave and the wry smile that he was known for,” Andy Jones, an academic associate director at UC Davis, said in a Substack post. “I will always think of that smile as I fondly remember our friendship. Whether in a poetry reading or at a pub quiz, Joshua displayed the same brilliance, mischief, and moral clarity.”
Written by: Rivers Stout — campus@theaggie.org
