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Oberon Makes It To The Big Time (in a manner of speaking)




I have just returned from Portland, Oregon where I attended the 14th Annual Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference at Concordia University. It was a wonderful experience and I will be posting some excerpts on this blog in the near future.

For now, I would like to report on something which made me proud. Above you can see the lobby of the new SARC (Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre) at Concordia University (image courtesy of Dr. Daniel Wright, Director of the SARC). The SARC was formally dedicated during the Conference.

In the picture you can see the classroom (just to the left of what is probably a portrait of Edward deVere). You can even see the "light of wisdom" present within the room. (Well, actually, it's just the sunlight. This picture was taken on one of the comparatively rare sunny days in Portland).

On all the walls of this room (and other rooms in the SARC) there are posted many items related to the Authorship Question. I am very happy to say that there is an actual Oberon bookmark there! It is on the wall just to the left of the door as you go in. I am glad that Dr. Wright thinks so highly of us here at Oberon (as far as I could see there is nothing posted specifically about any other local group).

If you continue along the hallway past the classroom you come to a boardroom which is also used for classes (and special meetings). Also (not included in the picture) are an office for Dr. Wright and another one for his assistant (a student intern, currently a chemistry major at Concordia who "fell in love with the authorship question" while studying at Concordia-go figure). These two offices are located just to the left of the framed Declaration of Reasonable Doubt hanging at the left of the picture (just above the wooden globe-like thing, the significance of I could never discover).

The SARC is very impressive and even more impressive is the fact that such a thing could have been established at an honest-to-goodness University. Maybe the tide is turning (ever-so-slightly).

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