2025 SOF Annual Conference
September 18–20 | New Haven, Connecticut
The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship held its 13th Annual Conference at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut. The theme was “Women and the Authorship Question.” Three days of public presentations were followed by Our Annual Meeting (for members only) on Sunday, September 21.
As usual, a highlight of the recent conference was the conferral of our annual Oxfordian of the Year Award. Earl Showerman was the 2025 honoree (described in this recent news article).
We also bestowed on Richard Joyrich our occasional Tom Regnier Veritas Award, conferred from time to time on SOF members who have shown especially laudable creativity, scholarship, or sheer tenacity in pursuing our shared mission. Richard is a longtime member, tireless conference organizer, and former Trustee.
The official full-color 2025 conference program, with abstracts and speaker biographies, may be viewed and downloaded here. The conference schedule is also restated below.
REGISTER
In-person registration is closed.
We have reached capacity for in-person attendance in Denver. Please join us via Livestream!
Cancellation policy: We have committed to paying the hotel a minimum fee for booked rooms, food and catering and we will be assessed a penalty if we don’t meet that minimum. In order to best anticipate avoiding a penalty we will issue a full refund up to and including Aug 26. After Aug 26 we will issue a refund of whatever a registrant paid minus $99. That $99 will be applied to the Livestream so you will still be able to enjoy the event.
HAMLET
TICKETS
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is putting on a production of Hamlet during our 2024 conference. The production is being directed by Chris Coleman, a signatory of the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition’s “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt.” Coleman, artistic director of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ acclaimed theatre company, will join our conference for a discussion the day after we see the show.
NOTE: Tickets for Hamlet can be booked on the SOF website only through August 28. After that date, bookings will have to be made through the theater itself (if tickets are still available). For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the DCPA website.
LIVESTREAM
Attend virtually! Watch the conference live on your computer or phone. Join us virtually from the comfort of your home (or wherever!).
The livestream registration fee is just $99 for the entire four-day event. Everyone purchasing the Livestream (as well as anyone attending in person) will be able to watch the presentations not only as they happen but for a period of 30 days afterward. So if you miss a paper or want to hear it again, you can just go back in!
SCHEDULE
2025 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE — Theme: Women and the Authorship Question
Thursday, September 18, Session 1, hosted by Phoebe Nir
1:00 pm: Welcoming Remarks — Conference Chair Don Rubin & SOF President Brent Evans
1:05 pm: Bob Meyers & Rick Waugaman — “Prophets Without Honor” (video)
1:45 pm: Keynote Presentation by Brent Evans — “Was Delia Mad?”
2:35 pm: Sean Phillips — “Decrypting de Vere: Anagrams and the Friedman Conditions”
3:20 pm: Refreshment Break
3:40 pm: Matt Hutchinson — “Did Mary Sidney Suppress Edward de Vere’s Authorship of Venus and Adonis?” (video)
4:10 pm: Joella Werlin — “First Folio Foolery: Spotlight on Countess Mary Sidney Herbert and Lady Mary Sidney Wroth”
4:55 pm: Patricia Keeney — “Edward de Vere and the Mythical Mind”
5:45 pm: Reception
Friday, September 19, Session 2, hosted by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan
9:00 am: Shelly Maycock — “Charlotte Armstrong’s Solution to the Folio Epigram”
9:30 am: William S. Niederkorn — “Bombshells, from Miranda to Mistress Quickly”
10:15 am: Rima Greenhill — “The Daughter of the Russian Emperor: Who Were Hermione’s Parents?”
10:45 am: Refreshment Break
11:05 am: Sky Gilbert — “Shakespeare and the Women of the Intronati”
11:50 am: Lisa Quattrocki-Knight — “Comedies, Political Context, and Theory of Mind: Redating the Plays”
12:30 pm: Michael Delahoyde — “Oxford’s Backwords” (video)
1:00 pm: Lunch Break (New Haven Pizza Party)
2:05 pm: Walk to Yale Visitors Center and Walking Tour of Yale Campus
3:15 pm: Guided Tour Options — Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library or Yale Center for British Art
7:30 pm: Ron Destro‘s Shakespearacy (a tongue-in-cheek authorship 101 reading), with Ron Destro, Jonathan Jackson, and Don Rubin
8:40 pm: Carla Kissane‘s Petty Tyrant: A Shakespeare Cabaret
Saturday, September 20 (morning), Session 3, hosted by Dorothea Dickerman
9:00 am: Elisabeth Waugaman — “The Role of Women in 1 Henry VI: A Psychological Mirror” (video)
9:30 am: Cheryl Eagan-Donovan — “Shakespeare and Transphobia”
10:10 am: Earl Showerman — “Parallel Lives of Shakespeare’s Helena and Oxford’s Anne” (video)
10:35 am: Bonner Cutting — “Is There a Southampton Problem?”
11:15 am: Refreshment Break
11:40 am: John Hamill — “Penelope Rich Exposed by Marston as the Dark Lady” (video)
12:05 pm: Nic Panagopoulos — “The Socratic Component of Hamlet”
1:00 pm: Awards Luncheon — Oxfordian of the Year & Tom Regnier Veritas Awards, The Ox-Tones Perform Sonnet 17, Trailers of Phoebe Nir’s Profiles & Amanda Eliasch’s The Truth Will Out, and Announcement of the 2026 Conference
Saturday, September 20 (afternoon), Session 4, hosted by Bonner Cutting
2:30 pm: Robert Prechter — “Determining True Female Pioneers of Creative Writing in English”
3:15 pm: Margo Anderson — “Nicholas Hilliard’s Shake-speare Portrait”
3:45 pm: Dorothea Dickerman — “Shakespeare’s Sister: Mary de Vere — What She Tells Us About Shakespeare”
4:30 pm: Roger Stritmatter — “Shakespeare’s Women in the Audley End Annotations” plus comments on the new Brief Chronicles IX: Ben Jonson’s Unorthodox Poetics
Sunday, September 21, Session 5
10:00 am: SOF Annual Meeting (members only)
11:45 am: Informal Visit to Gravesite of Delia Bacon (Connecticut authorship pioneer), Grove Street Cemetery
[posted Nov. 6, 2025; updated Nov. 26, 2025]
LODGING
The conference will take place at the Hyatt Centric Hotel located at 1776 Champa St. in downtown Denver.
SOF has secured rooms for $239 per night plus tax for single and double occupancy. The special hotel rates are offered for up to two days before and/or after the conference
Click on this link to make reservations: SOF Annual Conference (hyatt.com)
SUPPORT
We are grateful for the sustained and faithful generosity of our members and donors. Please continue to support the work of the SOF! Donations are always welcome.
