Walking into William Demastes’ office is like walking into a miniature library filled only with volumes on Shakespeare.
According to Demastes, an English professor, LSU was meant to be his starter job. He’d stay a few years and then move on to something better.
That was in 1989.
Demastes enjoys turning students on to Shakespeare’s work — one of his main goals is to make Shakespeare “cool” in the eyes of undergraduates. He strives to be animated during his lectures and keep students engaged. He does this by putting Shakespeare into modern terms.
“What I like about Shakespeare is that it’s relevant,” Demastes said. “If you stop and think about it, Shakespeare is really contemporary.”
In addition to lecturing to an audience, English professors commonly publish their own work, something of which Demastes is a veteran, judging by his extensive publishing history of six books and countless articles.
“If you’re a recluse, being an English professor makes sense,” Demastes said.
His latest publication, “The Cambridge Introduction to Tom Stoppard,” has been well-received, and he is the only non-New York resident to edit the “Best American Short Stories” series.
Though, according to Demastes, writing and editing books is only a bonus. His first love is teaching.
“It’s like a sanctuary,” Demastes said. “You close the doors, and you have a captive audience.”
In his experience, that audience has changed quite a bit over the years, and students are now more engaged and better prepared.
“Intellectual curiosity has risen in the last 20 years,” Demastes said.
Demastes also finds time to serve other areas of the University. Last year, he was selected to be the University’s faculty athletics representative.
In this position, Demastes is a liaison between athletics and academics.
“Being LSU’s faculty athletic representative is cool because athletics are self-funded,” Demastes said.
According to Demastes, this, among other things, is what sets the University’s Athletics Department apart from other universities. There’s no squabbling about athletics taking money from academics because the Athletics Department is funded by alumni and self-generated income.
When Demastes is not devoting his time to the University, he’s around campus being recognized for his uncanny resemblance to Robin Williams.
“I usually get George Lucas or Robin Williams,” Demastes said. “Maybe it’s because I’m a teacher.”
“If you stop and think about it, Shakespeare is really contemporary.”
