Dr. Gabriel Lonsberry, an Assistant Professor of English who specializes in Shakespeare, is from Lakeland, FL. He earned his BA in English Literature from the University of South Florida before going on to earn an MA in English Literature from University College London. There, Lonsberry studied through the program “Shakespeare in History,” which focused on “Shakespeare, early modern drama, and research training at many of London’s top archives.” In 2020, Lonsberry earned his PhD in Medieval and Early Modern Literary Studies from Purdue University.

While Lonsberry’s expertise is in Shakespeare, his individual focus is on Shakespeare’s last plays (such as Cymbeline, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and Henry VIII). He explained that his research analyzes the court performances of the aforementioned plays and contends that said performances were politicized, regardless of Shakespeare’s intentions. “Every holiday season following the accession of King James I, Shakespeare’s newest works were staged alongside masques, pageants, and other state-sponsored entertainments that addressed the year’s most pressing political issues and symbolically enacted the monarch’s desired outcomes,” Lonsberry elaborated.

Lonsberry was drawn to JSU by the job listing that was looking for an educator with expertise in Shakespeare and who could teach a course on his writing – an uncommon position, as most jobs were searching for educators who could teach a little of everything and possibly have a class or two on Shakespeare. As someone who is passionate about teaching Shakespeare, Lonsberry felt he was right for the job. “I could tell right away that JSU’s English Department valued the works of Shakespeare, specifically, and early modern literature in general,” Lonsberry shared, “and that became even clearer when I learned about The Shakespeare Project, which I can’t wait to contribute to.”

This semester, Lonsberry is teaching English Composition I, Survey of English Literature I, and Shakespeare. Lonsberry states that he is teaching a lot of his favorite works in both of the literature courses, but is looking forward to hear what his students in Shakespeare think about The Winter’s Tale. “It’s a very weird play, but that’s why I love it,” he confessed. Lonsberry’s favorite part of teaching is being able to revisit the texts with the fresh perspective his students have. “I’ve read most of the texts I’m teaching so many times that it’s easy to forget how fun and exciting they are,” Lonsberry explained. “So it’s been really fun to hear students react to Beowulf and Shakespeare’s Richard II, for example, because the stories are completely new and totally surprising to most of them — it makes them feel new to me, too.”

About the English Department, Lonsberry enjoys the creativity and passion that breeds new ideas on teaching and research. “The English Department has hired a lot of new faculty members . . .  so it feels like a very vibrant environment with lots of enthusiasm and new ideas,” Lonsberry stated. “I don’t have to worry about trying something different. Everyone here wants their students to be as passionate about English as they are”.

Although a part of him wants his teaching to turn his students into Shakespeare enthusiasts, Lonsberry truthfully wants to help his students become curious and develop their critical thinking skills. “The main reason we continue to read Shakespeare and other works of early English literature is that they can help us think through our own social and political concerns,” Lonsberry said, “so I hope that students who take my classes leave with new ways of looking at the world around them.”

Lonsberry is currently finishing an essay “that puts Shakespeare’s (and his probable collaborator, George Wilkins’) Pericles into dialogue with Ben Jonson’s The Masque of Queens” and explores the political dimensions in both plays. “The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, and Dramatic Absolutism on the Stuart Court Stage,” a different essay of Lonsberry’s, is actually set to be published in a forthcoming issue of the academic journal English Literary History.

In his spare time, Lonsberry enjoys various music-based activities; he listens to, reads, podcasts about, and even records music. Lonsberry said that he genuinely loves all types of music, ranging “from the weirdest, most experimental noise to the hip hop that’s currently trending on TikTok”; currently, he is listening to Alabama musicians like Hank Williams, Sun Ra, and Pink Siifu. Lonsberry considers himself an audiophile, as he enjoys researching high-quality speakers, amps, and synthesizers.

Lonsberry’s advice to his students is something he always tells them: ‘trust your gut.’ “You are intelligent readers encountering talented authors, so if a text seems weird or confusing, it’s probably supposed to! Now you can investigate why that’s the case.”