Robert Deam Tobin *90

Bob died of liver cancer Aug. 10, 2022, in Worcester, Mass.

Born in 1961 in Urbana, Ill., Bob studied German literature at Harvard, graduating in 1983. After two years of dissertation research in Freiburg, Germany, he completed his Ph.D. in German literature at Princeton in 1990.

Bob began his teaching career at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash, in 1989. After 18 years, he moved to Clark University in Worcester, Mass., to assume the inaugural Henry J. Leir Chair in Language, Literature, and Culture. He taught courses in comparative literature and developed the language department’s core course, “The National Imagination.”

His scholarly work broadened our understanding of historical authors and works through insights on medicine and literature, queer theory, gender and sexuality, culture and politics, and human rights. His most recent book was Peripheral Desires: The German Discovery of Sex (2015). With Ivan Raykoff he co-edited A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest (2007). In 2019, he co-curated an extensive exhibit tracing Worcester’s queer history and co-authored its catalog, For the Record: LGBTQ+ Worcester, receiving a key to the city for this achievement.

He is survived by his husband, Ivan Raykoff; his father, David Tobin; and six siblings.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.