2024
Bonner Miller Cutting
Bonner Miller Cutting is a true risk-taker and a powerful advocate for our movement. Her research yields major discoveries and has great potential for further inquiry and analysis. She has made important contributions to the Oxfordian cause through scholarly research, articles and a book, conference presentations, outreach, and taking an active leadership role in the Shakespeare studies and authorship community.
2023
William Boyle
Bill Boyle has worked to advance the Oxfordian movement in innumerable ways for more than 30 years, including creating one of the first Oxfordian websites, cofounding the Shakespeare Fellowship (a parent organization of the SOF), and running the New England Shakespeare Oxford Library (NESOL) and its online search database SOAR.
2022
Stephanie Hopkins Hughes & Richard Malim
Stephanie Hopkins Hughes and Richard Malim have been recognized for their groundbreaking 2022 books: Hopkins Hughes' Educating Shakespeare: What he knew and how and where he learned it and Malim's Shakespeare's Revolution.
2021
Richard M. Waugaman
Richard M. Waugaman, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University, and Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. He has published two ebooks and more than 100 articles on Shakespeare.
2020
James A. Warren
Retired diplomat James A. Warren is the editor of the centenary scholarly edition of J. Thomas Looney's book “Shakespeare” Identified (1920), which launched the modern movement recognizing Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the true author of the works of Shakespeare.
2019
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan
Filmmaker Cheryl Eagan-Donovan was named 2019 Oxfordian of the Year for her documentary Nothing Is Truer Than Truth. The film follows Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, as he travels to Venice and throughout Italy in 1575–76.
2018
Ramon Jiménez and Joan Leon
In 2018, for the first time, the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship presented joint Oxfordian of the Year awards to husband and wife Ramon Jiménez and Joan Leon. Leon served many years on the SOF Board of Trustees. Jiménez (also a former Trustee) has published much important Oxfordian research.
2017
Hank Whittemore
New York actor-writer-researcher Hank Whittemore, a long-time Oxfordian, was feted for his overall work in the field of authorship studies and especially for his 2016 book, 100 Reasons Shake-speare Was the Earl of Oxford.
2016
Tom Regnier
The late Tom Regnier was a greatly admired attorney, scholar, and lecturer on Shakespeare and the law. He played a crucial role in unifying the American Oxfordian movement in 2013. As SOF President (2014–18), among many advances, he renovated the SOF website and overall online presence.
2015
Alexander Waugh
Alexander Waugh, acclaimed author of books in several fields, is a powerful advocate of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship. Among many contributions, he has debated the issue on Fleet Street and cast new light on the phrase "Sweet Swan of Avon" in the First Folio.
2014
Alex McNeil
Alex McNeil, a retired attorney and court administrator, edited the Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter for many years and played a key role in the 2013 unification of the Shakespeare Oxford Society and Shakespeare Fellowship to form the SOF.Earlier Honorees
The first nine recipients of the Oxfordian of the Year award, from 2005 to 2013, were honored by joint agreement of the former Shakespeare Oxford Society (1957–2013) and the former Shakespeare Fellowship (2001–2013), prior to their October 2013 unification creating the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship.
2013
Roger Stritmatter
Professor Roger Stritmatter is the first person to earn, as an open Oxfordian, an English or related Ph.D. and a university faculty position in the field. He has published several books and more than 100 articles, exploring many historic breakthroughs in Shakespearean studies.
2012
John M. Shahan
John M. Shahan is a leader on the authorship question in many ways, including his founding of the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition and promulgation of its “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt,” and his organization of a major 2011 response (published in 2013) to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
2011
Kevin Gilvary
Kevin Gilvary edited Dating Shakespeare’s Plays (2010) (recently reissued in print and online), has served as a leader in the U.K.’s De Vere Society, and more recently wrote The Fictional Lives of Shakespeare (2018), based on his Ph.D. dissertation.
2010
Richard Paul Roe
The late Richard Paul Roe, a World War II veteran, successful attorney, and longtime Oxfordian, was honored for his research on Shakespeare’s connections to Italy, published posthumously by Harper Perennial as The Shakespeare Guide to Italy (2011).
2009
John Paul Stevens
The late John Paul Stevens was one of the most admired and long-serving justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. An avowed Oxfordian, he touched on the authorship question in several public speeches and writings and praised Tom Regnier’s seminal 2003 article on Shakespeare and the law.
2008
Daniel L. Wright
The late Daniel L. Wright, a dedicated teacher and scholar, served for many years as Professor of English on the faculty of the former Concordia University branch in Portland, Oregon, and as Director of the former Shakespeare Authorship Research Center (SARC) located there.
2007
Richard F. Whalen
The late Richad F. Whalen is one of the most respected and prolific scholars in the history of the Oxfordian movement. He holds degrees from Fordham, the Sorbonne, and the Yale Graduate School and worked as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press and as an executive for IBM.
2006
Lynne Kositsky
Lynne Kositsky is a poet, author, and independent scholar of Shakespeare. Her honors include the E.J. Pratt Medal and Award for Poetry and the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Youth. Her books for young readers include A Question of Will (2000), about the authorship issue.
2005
