Experience Retrieval Exercise (ERE): A Pedagogical Approach to Shakespeare, Race, and Empire

ABSTRACT This article employs Timothy Ponce's student‐centered pedagogical approach which privileges the dialogical relationship between reader and texts to inquire if our 21st century students can see Shakespeare's works as engaging cites for questions about race and the residual impact of empire building in our world. This study traces how Shakespeare is recognized as a cultural and literary icon who is widely respected––however, to students from marginalized communities––is increasingly distant from their psychic reality. With the genesis of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, to the widely critiqued social trauma of police brutality, systematic racism, and other race‐based issues––these examples of racial traumas in our contemporary moment are remnants of a longer history that predates our time. When Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) students think of literature that can engage these social issues, Shakespeare is not commonly cited. However, once a dialogic channel is established between Shakespeare's works and students, the playwright's interest in exploring––with complexity––a multiplicity of minoritized perspectives such as persons of color, women, individuals with disabilities, as well as Jewish and Muslim persons become visible. I propose thus that students can bring their questions about race to Shakespeare via what I call experience retrieval exercises. I import my experience of using this pedagogical approach with university students reading The Tempest (1611), which galvanizes students to recognize Shakespeare's works as rich intellectual touchstones to engage their questions about our uncritiqued biases on race and empire building.