As an online student, I do not expect to have a lot of interaction with my professors and classmates, but this was not the case for Professor Robert Sawyer’s online Shakespeare class. When I initially signed up for the summer session, I dreaded it because I figured the bard was only for sophisticated “highbrow” folks and I knew next to nothing about the famous playwright. Anyone who taught it must not have interests similar to those of a college student, such as myself. Then I watched the introduction video to the class with the opening proclaiming, “This is not your parents’ Shakespeare,” as a portrait of the playwright wearing pink sunglasses flashed across the screen (courtesy of Professor Michael Briggs). Professor Sawyer proved me wrong; Shakespeare is for everyone and if you’ve read “Titus Andronicus,” then you know the play has as much gore and thrill as in modern horror films, and “Twelfth Night,” has as much “tea” as “Bridgerton” and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

Every Monday we would meet on Zoom voluntarily and discuss some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays such as “Hamlet,” “The Tempest” and “Macbeth.”

 “I wasn’t a fan of Shakespeare until I saw a performance of “Hamlet” in college,” Professor Sawyer reminisces.

He also taught us that Shakespeare is relatable, and the plays touch on many facets of human nature such as the search for identity, forgiveness, familial conflict and grief. Professor Sawyer attested that Shakespeare is “still so relevant…think about all the movies that are based on his plays recently that aren’t even Shakespeare.” One of the most recent films is the raunchy rom-com “Anyone But You,” starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. It is based on the play “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Professor Sawyer received emeritus status on Friday, August 23, 2024, after 22 years of teaching Shakespeare and Literary Criticism to more than 1,000 students at ETSU, with his last class being taught online over the summer.

“He has been the most thoughtful and inspiring teacher I could’ve had at ETSU, he reminded me about my love for literature in ways I had forgotten. It is so sad to see him retire as I feel there is so much more he has to teach students, however, his legacy and teachings at ETSU will live on beyond himself,” said Marissa Franklin, junior English major.

In the wake of Burleson Hall renovations, Professor Sawyer’s door remains standing, a symbol of his influence fixed at our school, and a reminder to students to open those proverbial doors of life because “the world is your oyster.” He takes great pride in his students, owing the most rewarding part of his teaching career to watching one of his first students at ETSU, Erin Presley, receive tenure as an English professor at Eastern Kentucky University.

Photo of Dr. Robert Sawyer’s door located in Burleson Hall. (Contributed/Amy Helmendach)

From posthumanism to bitcoin and blockchain to Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton, Sawyer is also an avid researcher and prolific writer in all things Shakespeare and “appropriations.” He helps establish Shakespeare’s malleability and relevance in many realms of society, including the southern United States. Professor Sawyer collaborated with ETSU students to demonstrate the parallels between the south and the bard in his essay, “Country Matters: Shakespeare and Music in the American South,” referencing Dolly Parton’s song, “Romeo,” and Hank Williams Sr., who was also known as the “Hillbilly Shakespeare.” Nashville band, Diamond Rio, is also mentioned for its song, “This Romeo Ain’t Got Julie Yet,” which has an alternate happy ending inspired by “Romeo and Juliet.” He jokingly fears the popularity of the essay “will end up on his tombstone.”

Professor Sawyer has also contributed to Shakespearean research on a global level organizing and chairing conferences worldwide that include Barcelona, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Montreal and Poland. In 2010, Sawyer received an award that provided him with resources to write his book, “Marlowe and Shakespeare: The Critical Rivalry.” In 2019, he published “Shakespeare Between the World Wars: The Anglo-American Sphere,” drawing pertinent connections to the political climate of today’s age.

In his retirement, Professor Robert Sawyer and his wife, Professor Danielle Byington, performed a “blessing of the rings” ceremony at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford where Shakespeare is buried. He is coediting a book about Shakespeare and Bob Dylan, with a chapter about the “Rolling Thunder Revue,” that illustrates the similarities between the traveling musician and the bard’s rowdy venues. He also plans to work on a bio-fiction book about Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare’s, who wrote “Dr. Faustus.”

I am grateful to have been in Professor Sawyer’s final class before retirement. However, he hinted that he might teach a class or two as an adjunct professor, so if you get the chance, as Shakespeare said, “[It] is not in our stars, / But in ourselves.”

Take the class.

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