Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Paul Werstine at King's and beyond

"Paul Werstine’s legacy at King’s has no equal!”

This quote, from Dr. Ian Rae, Department Chair and Associate Professor of English, echoes the sentiments of many regarding Distinguished University Professor Dr. Paul Werstine, BA ’70.

Dr. Werstine spent his career, almost half a century, teaching Shakespeare and Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at King's, and now departs for a well-deserved retirement. During his time here, Dr. Werstine left an indelible mark upon the campus and in the lives of his colleagues and students, while enhancing the reputation of King’s University College across the globe.

"Beyond his reputation as a brilliant scholar and inspiring teacher, Paul is the colleague we all cherish. Regardless of his work load, he's the first to step up when duty calls, especially at those times when silence fills the room and no one else volunteers. Whether it's serving (again!) as Department Chair or leading the Research Grants Committee for the nth time, Paul is always there to pitch in," says Dr. Claudia Clausius, Associate Professor in the Department of English, French, and Writing and Coordinator of Foundations/King's Scholar.  She adds that Dr. Werstine's contributions "go way beyond task and titles. He's a strong advocate for his colleagues. With his incisive logic, his institutional memory, and his courage to speak up, he's helped many of us in difficult times."

Dr. Rae describes Dr. Werstine as “as a scholar who returned to his beloved alma mater after obtaining his Ph.D. in the United States, at the University of South Carolina. He subsequently dedicated his professional life to mentoring undergraduates while developing an international research profile of the highest order.”

“(Dr. Werstine) was the first to prove to the world that King's grads, and King's professors, could reach the pinnacle of their chosen professions,” adds Dr. Rae.

“Dr. Paul Werstine has done it all – with a sustained commitment to teaching, research and service that is unparalleled. He has been a model teacher-scholar and the quintessential academic citizen,” says Dr. Robert Ventresca, President (Interim).

Dr. Werstine’s impact on our campus and our students was seen and appreciated.

“I always looked forward to Dr. Werstine's classes. His expertise, wit, and kindness created an engaging learning environment. In particular, I loved his Shakespeare course – that class changed my perspective,” says Olivia Holland ’24.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Werstine received an impressive array of accolades from students and colleagues at King’s. He was the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003, and of graduating class awards in 2003, 2007, and 2009.

In 2015, as a Professor of Literature, Dr. Werstine was the inaugural recipient of the Hugh Mellon Excellence in Research Award, named in honour of the late Dr. Hugh Mellon, an Associate Professor of Political Science at King’s University College. The Faculty Research Activities Committee “unanimously and enthusiastically” made the decision to forego the nomination process and presented the award to Dr. Werstine due to his exemplifying the traits that the award was designed to recognize. Upon the decision to award Dr. Werstine the first Hugh Mellon award, one of his referees said, “The world of Shakespeare studies is already a better place for Werstine’s contributions, and the future promises more of the same.”

In 2023, Dr. Werstine was one of King's inaugural Distinguished University Professors, joining Dr. Rachel Birnbaum in earning the highest scholarly accolades that King’s offers.

Beyond the boundaries of our campus, Dr. Werstine represented King’s well, presenting his work at conferences, workshops, and invited lectures on an average of two or three per year since 1978, and was a major Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Grant holder on a consistent basis.

In 2010, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Humanities).

Dr. Werstine contributed much to the King’s community. During King’s annual alumni trip to Stratford, he would deliver a short lecture before the curtain went up to help the audience better understand the play they were about to enjoy.

In 2015, 2016 and 2018, he travelled to Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) on several occasions, to deliver lectures to BUCT’s students and faculty on Western literature from Amy Tan to Edgar Allan Poe, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Robert Frost and, of course, William Shakespeare.

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and on Shakespeare’s 456th birthday, Dr. Werstine shared his reading Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds and a passage from Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2). Sonnet 116 is from Dr. Werstine's co-edited book with Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, a Folger Shakespeare Library edition of Shakespeare's works.

Throughout his career, Dr. Werstine has made ground-breaking contributions to the field of Shakespeare studies, which have been recognized by his colleagues worldwide and influenced readers and theatre-goers throughout the English-speaking world.

“Dr. Werstine’s work influences what millions of readers and theatregoers see, hear, and understand of the most popular author in the English language,” says Dr. Rae.

One of the world’s foremost scholars in English Literature and Shakespeare Studies, he has served as the co-editor of the Folger Library edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems (1992-2010) and the co-general editor of the Modern Language Association's New Variorum Shakespeare edition.

Dr. Werstine has written widely about the early printings of Shakespeare, the Shakespeare editorial tradition, and dramatic manuscripts, especially in Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare (Cambridge University Press, 2012). A review of this monograph said that Dr. Werstine “has changed a fundamental part of the way (current thought about Shakespearean texts) …will be developed in the future.”

Starting in 1979 with his critically acclaimed article, “Variants in the First Quarto of Love’s Labour’s Lost,” published in Shakespeare Studies, Dr. Werstine became recognized for his astute approaches to editing Shakespeare’s work and for understanding the ways in which the various renditions of those works have come down to us.

Dr. Ventresca says that, among Dr. Werstine’s many talents and achievements, two stand out to him.

“First, Paul’s ability to blend rigorous academic standards, especially in his textual scholarship on Shakespeare, with a communicative teaching style that has made Shakespeare’s works accessible to generations of students and the general public. Second, Paul’s dedication to a host of activities beyond teaching and research that sustain our educational mission, including service and mentoring junior scholars long before the practice was popularized. I was one of those junior scholars way back when; and though I doubt he remembers it, Paul’s guidance and his example were an early education on the roles and responsibilities of academic citizenship.”

“Through it all, Paul has been a steadfast colleague and a valuable source of informed perspective in changing circumstances, as someone whose career has developed alongside the expansion of King’s itself. His departure will be felt like a change in a force of gravity. Fortunately, he promises to keep pursuing his research and to visit us regularly on campus,” says Dr. Rae.

“It would be difficult to overstate Paul’s importance to King’s. For five decades he has been a fully engaged member of the College, excelling in every way—as a revered instructor and mentor to generations of King’s undergraduates and Western graduate students (myself included), as a valued colleague serving diligently on the various councils and committees that keep this place and the broader academic community running, and as a scholar of the highest calibre, whose lifelong devotion to Shakespeare studies has, with no exaggeration, changed the way we think about the texts of Shakespeare’s plays and the byzantine paths that have carried those words on the page from the writer’s desk into our classrooms and onto our stages. He represents the very best of us,” says Dr. Brian Patton, Associate Professor of the Department of English, French and Writing.

To celebrate Dr. Werstine’s extraordinary career as a teacher, mentor, researcher, and editor and his immeasurable impact on King’s, a campaign has been launched to establish the Paul Werstine Student Award, a $25,000 endowed fund that will support King’s students in perpetuity. Every donation will bring King’s closer to the $25,000 goal, honour Dr. Werstine's legacy and ensure his passion for teaching and literature continues to inspire King’s students for years to come.

Members of the King’s community and visiting scholars will gather together in the Garron Lounge, from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on May 1, 2025, to further honour Dr. Werstine’s teaching and research legacy during a catered reception in In addition to being the first event of the Shakespeare After Werstine: Editing Shakespeare Now conference (May 1 - 3, 2025), the reception will be an opportunity to celebrate Dr. Werstine’s career and wish him well in his future endeavours.

 

Media Coverage:

On April 23, 2025 (World Shakespeare Day), Dr. Werstine appeared on CBC London Morning with Andrew Brown to discuss Shakespeare's life and work and the upcoming conference in his honour.

CBC News: Q&A: London professor honoured after teaching Shakespeare for nearly 50 years.