New Haven Conference Announced

(For a full update on SOF conference news, as of November 6, 2025, with the conference schedule, brochure, and other information, please click here.)

The SOF is pleased to announce the full schedule for its upcoming 2025 Annual Conference in New Haven, Conn. The conference will begin on Thursday, 18 September at 1 p.m. at the Omni Hotel across from the Yale campus and conclude with the SOF’s Annual General Meeting on Sunday, 21 September from 10 to noon.

Discounted Conference registration will remain open until 18 August through the SOF website and rooms at the discounted conference rate will remain available at the Omni until the same date.  Late registration at higher rates will be possible.

Anyone wishing to attend the conference on only specific days may also register online at this time. Daily rates are as follows:

Thursday, 18 September, 1:00- 7:15 (includes all papers, breaks and opening reception) — $80

Friday, 19 September, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. (includes all papers, breaks, pizza lunch, Yale walking tour and tour of either the Beinecke Library or the British Art Center and the evening performances) — $110

Saturday, 19 September, 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m, (includes all papers and awards lunch) — $110

Anyone unable to attend in person this year will be able to follow the conference proceedings by registering for the Livestream for $119.  This is also now open and available through the website. All conference papers will be included in the 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 18.  After Aug 18 we will issue a refund of whatever a registrant paid minus $119.  That $119 will be applied to the Livestream so you will still be able to enjoy the meeting.

Please reserve your hotel room at SOF Annual Conference (Omni Hotel)  and remember to register for the Conference itself as soon as you can so we can keep track of overall numbers which are limited. Our last two conferences were both sold out in advance.

Among the speakers this year are SOF Conference veterans Margo Anderson, Bonner Cutting, Michael Delahoyde, Dorothea Dickerman, Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, Sky Gilbert, Rima Greenhill, John Hamill, Matt Hutchinson, Shelly Maycock, Bob Meyers, William S. Niederkorn, Robert Prechter, Lisa Quattrocki-Knight, Earl Showerman, Roger Stritmatter, Elisabeth Waugaman and Rick Waugaman

Among first-time speakers are SOF Presidential nominee Brent Evans, Canadian poet and novelist Patricia Keeney, Prof. Nic Panagopoulos from Greece, cyber enthusiast Sean Phillips, and long-time authorship supporter Joella Werlin.

The full schedule (subject as always to change) follows:

                                               

      SOF  NEW HAVEN SCHEDULE    

    All times US Eastern Daylight Time   Subject to change

                          THEME:  WOMEN AND THE AUTHORSHIP            

      Thursday, 18 September (Session 1)

1 p.m. Welcome:

Conference Chair Don Rubin

SOF President Brent Evans

Session Host:  Phoebe Nir

 

1:05-1:45 Bob Meyers and Rick Waugaman: “Prophets Without Honor” (video)

 

1:45-2:30 KEYNOTE PAPER: Brent Evans: “Was Delia Mad?”

2:30-2:35 Q and A

 

2:35-3:15       Sean Phillips: “Decrypting de Vere”

3:15-3:20      Q and A

 

3:20-3:40 Refreshment Break 

 

3:40-4:10 Matt Hutchinson: Did Mary Sidney Suppress Edward de Vere’s Authorship                  of Venus and Adonis?” (video)

 

4:10-4:40 Joella Werlin: “First Folio Foolery: Spotlight on Mary Sidney Herbert and Mary Sidney Wroth”

4:40-4:55 Q and A

 

4:55-5:35 Patricia Keeney: “Edward de Vere and the Mythical Mind”

5:35-5:40 Q and A

 

5:40     End Session 1  

 

5:45-7:15 Reception in hotel

 

7:30-9:00 Meeting of the SOF Board

 

 

Friday, 19 September (Session 2)

Session Host:  Cheryl Eagan-Donovan

 

9:00-9:25 Shelly Maycock: “Charlotte Armstrong’s Solution to the Folio Epigram”

9:25-9:30 Q and A

 

9:30-10:10 William Niederkorn: “Bombshells, from Miranda to Mistress Quickly”

10:10-10:15 Q and A

 

10:15-10:40 Rima Greenhill: “The Daughter of the Russian Emperor”       

10:40-10:45 Q and A

 

10:45-11:05 Refreshment Break 

 

11:05-11:45 Sky Gilbert: “Shakespeare and the Women of the Intronati”

11:45-11:50 Q and A

 

11:50-12:25     Lisa Quattrocki-Knight: “Comedies, Political Context and Theory of Mind” 

12:25-12:30     Q and A

 

12:30-12:55 Michael Delahoyde: “Oxford’s Backwords”

12:55-1:00 Q and A

 

1:00 End Session 2

 

1:00-2:00 Lunch Break (New Haven Pizza Party)

2:05-2:15 Walk to Yale Visitors Center (149 Elm Street )

2:15-3:00 Walking tour of Yale campus (10 groups of 10). End at A or B (below)

(sign up on registration)

 

3:15-5:00 Guided visit A: Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book Library *

(5 groups of ten)  

OR 

Guided visit B: the Yale Center for British Art ** (5 groups of ten)

     

7:30 p.m.     Ron Destro’s Shakespearacy (a tongue-in-cheek authorship 101 reading)

 

8:40 Carla Kissane’s Petty Tyrant: A Shakespeare Cabaret (with music)  

 

9:50             End Evening Performances

 

 

Saturday, 20 September (Session 3)

 

Session Host: Dorothea Dickerman

 

9:00 -9:30 Elizabeth Waugaman: “The Role of Women in 1 Henry VI” (video)

 

9:30-10:05 Cheryl Eagan-Donovan: “Shakespeare and Transphobia” 

10:05-10:10    Q and A

 

10:10-10:35    Earl Showerman: “Parallel Lives of Shakespeare’s Helena and Oxford’s  Anne”

10:35-10:40 Q and A

 

10:40-11:15    Bonner Cutting: “Is There a Southampton Problem?”

11:15-11:20 Q and A

 

11:20-11:40 Refreshment Break 

 

11:40-12:05 John Hamill: “Penelope Rich Exposed by Marston as the Dark Lady”  

12:05-12:10 Q and A

 

12:10-12:50 Nic Panagopoulos: “The Socratic Component of Hamlet”

12:50-12:55    Q and A

 

12:55 p.m.        End Session 3

 

 

1:00-2:30  Awards Luncheon (for all registrants) 

Oxfordian of the Year

Veritas Award

The Oxtones: Sonnet 17

Trailer: Phoebe Nir Profiles

Trailer: Amanda Eliasch “The Truth Will Out”

Announcement of the 2026 SOF Conference

 

SESSION 4

 

Session Host: Bonner Cutting

 

2:30-3:10 Robert Prechter: “Determining the True Female Pioneers of Creative 

Writing In English” 

3:10-3:15 Q and A

 

3:15-3:40 Margo Anderson: “Nicholas Hilliard’s Shake-speare Portrait”

3:40-3:45 Q and A

 

3:45-4:25 Dorothea Dickerman: “Shakespeare’s Sister: Mary de Vere”

4:25-4:30 Q and A

4:30-5:15 Roger Stritmatter: “Shakespeare’s Women in the Audley End Annotations”

plus some words on his new Brief Chronicles’ Ben Jonson volume.

5:15-5:20 Q and A

 

5:20 End Session 4

 

 

Sunday,  September 21 (Session 5)

 

10-Noon SOF Annual General Meeting (Members Only). 

    Available by Zoom

 

AGENDA 

Election of new members of the Board of Trustees

Election of the President

Some words from the new President

Treasurer’s Report 

Written Reports from all SOF Committee Chairs 

Reports from the editors of The Oxfordian and The Newsletter –Special report from Bill Boyle on the Shakespeare Online Authorship Resources (SOAR) and the New England Shakespeare Oxford Library (NESOL) 

Thanks to retiring members of the BOT

 

Coffee and tea available.

  End of Conference

 

Noon-12:30   Informal visit to gravesite of Connecticut authorship pioneer Delia Bacon

          (Led by Brent Evans. Sign-up. 12 minute walk or shared Ubers for about $3 p/p)

 

*The Beinecke Library (121 Wall St.). For those unable to attend this visit, the Beinecke is also open for public visits:

 

  Monday, Tuesday and Thursday: 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

  Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

  Friday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

  Saturday and Sunday: noon – 5 p.m.

 

         **The Yale Center for British Art (1080 Chapel St.) is also open for public visits:

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 10 p.m – 5 p.m.

Thursday: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Sunday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

[originally published Aug. 1, 2025; updated Nov. 8, 2025]