Professor Elliott Presents at Legal Conference Regarding Shakespeare Authorship

Ward Elliott, the Burnet C. Wohlford Professor Of American Political Institutions, joined a distinguished panel of scholars and legal experts at the recent two-day conference, Who Wrote Shakespeare? An Evidentiary Puzzle. Sponsored by the University of Tennessee College of Law, Knoxville, the conference was attended by more than 150 attorneys.
Looking through legal and literary lenses, the conference examined the question of Shakespeare authorship, using broad-based evidence from the original texts and historical documents pointing to the possibility that the writer of the Shakespeare canon is someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford. (Many have suggested that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was actually the author of works attributed to Shakespeare.)
Elliott's presentation, Computer Evidence and Shakespeare, introduced computer data shortening the list of credible claimants. The data is from research conducted by CMC undergraduates between 1987-1994 as part of the Shakespeare Clinic, which Elliott co-advised with CMC professor Robert Valenza, the W.M. Keck Chair of Math and Computer Science. During that time, clinic participants used a custom-designed software program to compare selected patterns of word usage in Shakespeare's plays and novels to the works of his claimants.
According to conference coordinator Micki Fox, the June 4-5 event was the first of its kind to offer Continued Legal Education credit (required for lawyers to maintain their licenses) for a conference of this kind. Elliott's paper, along with those of the other conference participants, will be published in the Tennessee Law Review.
Elliott received a Ph.D. from Harvard, and is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. He has published numerous articles on Shakespeare authorship, and remains licensed as an attorney in Washington, D.C. He has received CMC's Roy C. Crocker Prize for Merit, as well as the College's Presidential Award for Merit.