On behalf of the Shakespeare Oxford Society, I want to extend a heartfelt Thank You to Stephanie Hughes. We all owe Stephanie an enormous debt of gratitude for her ten year’s of selfless service as founding editor, guiding inspiration, and stalwart shepardess of The Oxfordian – our flagship scholarly journal. It is almost impossible in a short note like this to express adequately to Stephanie the extent of my personal appreciation – not to mention that of the entire Society and the Oxfordian community generally.
Stephanie has steered The Oxfordian through ten erudite editions – an amazing achievement at once uplifting and at the same time daunting. She has dedicated countless hours and enormous effort – often at considerable personal sacrifice — to making The Oxfordian what it is today. One measure of her incredible success over the past ten years is the extremely impressive line-up of candidates who have applied to succeed her as editor. At the time of this writing, the decision about Stephanie’s successor has not yet been made. I can promise all readers that our Publications Committee and Board of Trustees will be giving this appointment the serious attention it deserves.
I know Stephanie’s decision to move on was a difficult one. I also know that she has left the Society with some awfully big shoes to fill. Replacing Stephanie will not be easy. But the next ten editions – and beyond — of The Oxfordian must be edited and published. We’ll soldier on somehow without Stephanie at the helm. But it won’t be quite the same ever again. Thanks to Stephanie, The Oxfordian has reached a remarkable ten-year milestone. We’ve also reached the end of an era – the Stephanie Hughes era – at The Oxfordian.
Many thanks, Stephanie, for all you have achieved with The Oxfordian and best of luck as you turn your attention to other projects, Shakespeare-related and otherwise.
Very best wishes,
Matthew Cossolotto
President
Shakespeare Oxford Society
January 2008
