Re: “It’s not true!” (Nov. 24, page 7)

In response to It’s not true!, published November, 23, 2011.

I find it troublesome and disappointing for a university newspaper to use the term “conspiracy theory” in such a thought-stopping manner, particularly when used to describe a topic of scholarly significance like the authorship of the works of “Shakespeare.”

Graumann’s ignorance of the subject is obvious: the theory that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford was Shakespeare is not “from the 19th Century” as he states, but was in fact first proposed in a book published in 1920. Far from being “irrelevant,” this theory has only be strengthened and confirmed by subsequent research, and in 2001 the first PhD in Shakespeare/Oxford studies was awarded by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

To simply dismiss this scholarship as a “conspiracy theory” and say that it “doesn’t matter anyway” is contrary to the purpose of institutions of higher education and research, as well as to the spirit of free inquiry.

– Michael Dudley, Senior Research Associate and Library Coordinator, Institute of Urban Studies

Published in Volume 66, Number 14 of The Uniter (November 30, 2011)