Breakout Speakers
2025 JASNA New Voices Breakout Speaker
Dr. Po-Yu (Rick) Wei, International
Wenzhou-Kean University
Rick works as a lecturer at Wenzhou-Kean University in China, teaching literature and composition. His research interests include 18th-century English literature, culture, and society, Regency England, and Jane Austen studies. Topics of Dr. Wei’s recently published essays include 18th-century motherhood and female gamesters, Austen’s dietary philosophy, and food and Francophobic sentiment in 18th-century English literature.
The description of his talk, “‘That Shyness Which Too Often Keeps Him Silent’: Jane Austen and the Ethics of Shyness,” appears at session B-1, below.
The AGM program includes five scheduled time slots for breakout sessions. During online registration, attendees will select one speaker from a group of concurrent breakout presentations in each of the five time slots. Times and the order of speakers are subject to change in the final schedule. Due to meeting room availability constraints, Breakout Session A will take place on Thursday evening.
BREAKOUT SESSION A
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2025, 7:00pm
A1. Rebecca Romney, Washington, DC, Metropolitan Region
Who Does a Genius Learn From? Building a Book Collection of Austen's Favorite Women Writers
Jane Austen has inspired millions. But who were the women who inspired her? This session explores that question through the lens of book collecting. While they are often complementary activities, reading and book collecting nevertheless offer distinct perspectives: reading is about the story in the book, while collecting is about the story of the book. Approaching Austen’s legacy through this multifaceted lens—a material, book-historical approach, across centuries and inflected through her favorite authors—sharpens the image of Austen as a genius not because she was “above” her literary contemporaries, but because she was actively engaged in dialogues with them.
Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and author. She is the co-founder of Type Punch Matrix, a rare book firm based in the Washington DC area, and the co-founder of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize. Among her publications are The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books, 1769-1999 and Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend.
A2. Janet Saidi, Central Missouri Region
Dr. Nikki Payne, Central Missouri Region
Romance, Relevance, Reaction: Jane Austen and Romantic Fiction
Jane Austen is often associated with the stories, books, and films of the romance genre, and it might even be the romance of Austen’s plots that both powered and obscured the social commentary of her novels. This session is a lively conversation between an author-anthropologist and a journalist about romance and Austen through the lens of history, anthropology, and pop-culture. We’ll discuss Austen’s examination of the power structures of her day, her upending of established notions of status, her unpredictable heroines, her complicated happy endings, and how it all adds up to: Romance.
Janet Saidi is a professor of journalism and a public-radio journalist who produces The Austen Connection media project. She spoke about podcasting Austen at the 2023 AGM. Her new book is Jane Austen: The Original Romance Novelist.
Dr. Nikki Payne is a tech anthropologist who has written the popular Austenesque novels Pride and Protest and Sex, Lies, and Sensibility. Her most recent novel is The Princess and the P.I.
A3. Renata Dennis, Georgia Region
Dr. Alicia Kerfoot, SUNY Brockport
Shared Session: Head to Toe
Renata Dennis, Georgia Region
Tignons, Hats, and Headwraps: What Miss Lambe and Other Women of the Caribbean Wore on Their Heads
In Sanditon, Jane Austen introduces us to Miss Lambe, a “rich West Indian . . . about seventeen, half mulatto, chilly and tender.” Headwear of Miss Lambe’s West India, representing a mosaic of cultures, was more varied than those familiar to us from Regency England. Period illustrations and paintings from this region appear to demonstrate headdresses based on race and social status. This presentation describes the types of headpieces worn by women living in and around the Caribbean. Miss Lambe was a woman of high social class, representing two races and two countries. What did she wear in her homeland?
Renata Dennis is a retired nurse. She is currently the Georgia Regional Coordinator and At-Large Board Member of JASNA. She is also chair of the JASNA EDI Committee. Renata has been a guest speaker on the Austen Chat podcast and has presented to several JASNA Regions, and as part of the inaugural Pecha Kucha cohort at the 2023 AGM.
Dr. Alicia Kerfoot, SUNY Brockport
Jane Austen’s Footwear in Fact and Fiction
Visitors to Chawton can make a tangible connection to Austen’s life by walking in her footsteps and thinking about the accounts of walking she gives in her letters and in her novels. This session focuses on how a study of footwear from the late 18th and early 19th centuries can deepen our connection with Austen’s life and writing. Images of footwear from the archives at the Northampton Museum, the Bata Shoe Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum will be displayed and explained, with a focus on how Austen depicts walking boots.
Alicia Kerfoot is an Associate Professor of English at SUNY Brockport in Western NY, where she specializes in literature and material culture of the long 18th century. She has published essays in journals such as Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Fashion Theory, and the British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. She contributed to the book Frances Burney and the Arts (ed. Francesca Saggini, 2022) and she is writing a book on footwear in fiction of the long 18th century. She presented a breakout session on the topic of Catherine Morland’s “plain black shoes” at the 2010 JASNA AGM, and has also shared her research on footwear with the Central and Western New York Region.
A4. Elizabeth Steele, Eastern Pennsylvania Region
250 Years of Arguing with Jane
Why, when we gather annually to celebrate the genius of Jane Austen, do we argue with the fate she has determined for Charlotte Lucas? Why do we continue to believe that Willoughby truly loved Marianne? Why do we think Darcy is shy? The focus of this session will allow us all to challenge or defend the lopping off of characters’ heads by Jane Austen. Dust off your debate skills and come prepared to defend your hypothesis before fellow Janeites. Many of us will defend Austen’s choices. The only caveat? You must resort to the text, no movie references permitted. Email liza_janeite@hotmail.com to register your argument.
Elizabeth Jane Steele served as Coordinator of the 2009 JASNA AGM in Philadelphia and as JASNA’s Vice President for Conferences. She is now the Chair of the Nominating Committee. She has written essays for Persuasions Volumes 29 and 32. A former information technology professional, she now teaches courses on Jane Austen’s novels through the Center for Learning in Retirement at Delaware Valley University.
A5. Jo Ann Staples, Middle Tennessee Region
Kim Wilson, Wisconsin Region
Celebrating Jane Austen's Birthday
How did Jane Austen celebrate her birthday? What gifts might she have received? And would she have had a birthday cake? Drawing from Austen’s fiction and letters, Austen family records, and contemporary sources, this talk will explore how birthdays were observed in the Regency era—from simple family gatherings to festive foods and games, to cherished presents like books and jewelry. We'll bring these traditions to life with a discussion of period recipes, party games, and gift ideas for celebrating Austen’s 250th birthday in true Regency style.
Jo Ann Staples is retired from the Department of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University. Her primary interest now is the social history of the Georgian era. She has organized Regency dinners, balls, and game days for her local JASNA region and has presented AGM talks on card games, home remedies, and ball dress. She is the author of two books, Jane Austen’s Card Games and Jane Austen’s Games and Pastimes.
Kim Wilson is the author of Tea with Jane Austen, In the Garden with Jane Austen, At Home with Jane Austen, and the upcoming Entertaining Mr. Darcy. She was a JASNA traveling lecturer for the 2022-2023 term, has served as Regional Coordinator for the Wisconsin Region. She has presented breakouts, special sessions, and workshops at several AGMs and frequently presents programs for JASNA Regions.
BREAKOUT SESSION B
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2025, 3:30pm
B1. Dr. Po-Yu (Rick) Wei, Wenzhou-Kean University
“That Shyness Which Too Often Keeps Him Silent”: Jane Austen and the Ethics of Shyness
This session investigates Jane Austen’s portrayal of shy characters. Austen frames shyness as a significant maker of personal morality. She aligns with the 18th-century views that shyness, as a social inconvenience, warrants correction, but she diverges from the prevailing notion that women are inherently shy and should remain so. Austen’s ethical treatment of shyness underscores her broader celebration of modesty and the complex considerations surrounding the social behavior of her time.
Coming from Taiwan, Dr. Po-Yu (Rick) Wei works as a lecturer at Wenzhou-Kean University in China, teaching literature and composition. His research interests include 18th-century English literature, culture, and society, Regency England, and Jane Austen study. Topics of his recently published essays include 18th-century motherhood and female gamesters, Austen’s dietary philosophy, and food and Francophobic sentiment in 18th-century English literature.
B2. Elaine Bander, Montréal-Québec Region
“Born to be an Heroine”: How Austen’s Unchecked Genius Transformed the
Georgian Heroine
Rather than imitate the many novels that she read, Austen invented a new kind of heroine who challenged readers to rethink what the novel could be. This session examines five categories of Georgian novel heroines that Austen burlesqued and transformed, demonstrating how each plays against readers’ expectations and how, while each heroine is unique, each asserts her agency, complexity, and responsibility.
Dr. Elaine Bander, retired from the English Department of Dawson College (Montréal), has been a member of JASNA since 1993, serving in many capacities, and has published many essays and book chapters on Austen and other Georgian writers.
B3. Dr. Alexandra Jeikner, Deree–The American College of Greece
From Juvenile Wittiness to Adult Resistance: Tracing Jane Austen's Wicked Wit
This session will examine Austen’s final novel, which she called The Brothers and her family later titled Sanditon (1817), and her last poem, “Written at Winchester on Tuesday the 15th July 1817,” in light of one of her juvenilia pieces, Love and Freindship (1790). Scholarship illustrates that children’s literature often reflects and comments upon socio-cultural values and norms more openly than adult fiction. This approach will expose Austen’s genius of concealing a wicked wit behind an imperfect, burlesque style that reminds readers of her juvenile style, to subtly resist the faultless image crafted by her family.
Alexandra Jeikner is an Assistant Professor in the English and Modern Languages Department at Deree–The American College of Greece. Her conference presentations as well as her journal and conference publications reflect her research interests, ranging from nursery rhymes and (children’s) literature, to teaching pedagogy and academic integrity, to artificial intelligence in education.
B4. Brianna Duffin, Rosemont College
Women In Love
Jane Austen’s novels are far from conventional romances. They are a unique blend of components (such as bildungsroman and satire), using romance as a framework and plot mechanism to achieve a more sophisticated end. This session will explore why Austen’s characters enter into loving marriages: because, for a host of internal and external reasons, they must. We will delve into Austen’s narrative strategies for creating romantic connection, explore how the novels demonstrate comprehension of marriage as a socioeconomic institution, and suggest why the heroines attain perfect matches that bring them true joy at the completion of their internal journeys.
Brianna Duffin is a graduate student at Rosemont College in Pennsylvania. She has research experience in English-language literature across eras and styles through a feminist lens.
B5. Mavis Biss, Loyola University Maryland
Karen Stohr, Georgetown University
Jane Austen’s Philosophical Genius
While it is unlikely that Jane Austen considered herself a philosopher, her novels nevertheless contain profound philosophical insights. Her capacity to illuminate essential features of moral and social life has earned her a devoted following among philosophers, and her characters make frequent appearances in philosophical works. This presentation has two aims. First, we will take stock of the ways in which Austen’s novels have exerted influence on philosophical thought, and what that means for Austen’s status as a philosopher in her own right. Second, we will identify and explore several themes in Austen’s novels that we see as having particularly important implications for moral philosophy.
Mavis Biss is professor of philosophy at Loyola University Maryland. She specializes in Kantian ethics and conceptions of moral creativity and moral self-cultivation. Her work has appeared in journals such as Philosophers Imprint, European Journal of Philosophy, and Kantian Review, as well as in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Psyche.
Karen Stohr is the Ryan Family Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy at Georgetown University. Her primary research area is ethics, including the moral aspects of etiquette and social interaction. Stohr is the author of three books and numerous journal articles, with publications in Persuasions and Philosophy and Literature. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Washingtonian, and Notre Dame Magazine. She is a frequent guest on radio shows and podcasts.
B6. Jazmine Casas, University of Texas at Austin
The Quixotic Writer: Jane Austen’s Role in Northanger Abbey
This session examines the mingling of free-indirect discourse and authorial intrusion to consider Austen’s own role within the novel, with primary focus on Northanger Abbey. This session considers the relationship between reader, writer, and novelist herself to attempt to define the “Quixotic Writer” by examining Austen’s style as a writer and her own relationship to reading. Furthermore, this session contemplates how these modes of identification appear in “fan studies” today.
Jazmine Casas is a second year Ph.D student at the University of Texas at Austin, where her area of study includes film and the long 19th-century British novel, primarily under the lenses of Women’s and Gender Studies.
BREAKOUT SESSION C
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2025, 4:35pm
C1. Claire Saim, International Region
Jane Austen's Flamboyant French Cousin, the Countess Eliza de Feuillide, and How She Influenced Austen's Work
This session will familiarize members with Jane Austen's first cousin, Elizabeth Hancock, who became the Countess Eliza de Feuillide before marrying Henry Austen. The current owners of the castle that Eliza and her husband, Jean-Francois Capot de Feuillide, rented in the South of France have graciously given access to their personal archives. This new material will be presented to help members better understand Eliza's life in France during Marie-Antoinette’s sparkling reign and how Jane Austen's "French" cousin and sister-in-law may have influenced her writing.
Based in Paris, France, Claire Saim is a French writer. She published (with Gwen Giret) Jane Austen The Visual Encyclopedia in 2023 in French, followed by the English and Spanish versions in 2024.
C2. Dr. Kenneth L. Brewer, Montclair State University
The Genius of Misdirection: Jane Austen’s Narrative Sleight of Hand in Emma
Jane Austen's narrative technique in Emma misdirects readers from crucial plot clues, particularly regarding Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax's hidden engagement. First-time readers, like Emma, are shocked by the revelation despite earlier hints. In contrast, the initial part of the novel, in which Emma is surprised by Elton's proposal, is often dismissed as farcical. However, Austen skillfully prevents questioning of plot elements, such as John Knightley's “revelation” of Elton’s interest in her and his subsequent criticism of Emma. By assigning this role to John instead of George, Austen maintains character consistency and avoids jealousy themes, reinforcing Highbury's conflict-suppressing nature.
Dr. Kenneth L. Brewer is currently a Visiting Professor in Writing Studies and English at Montclair State University. After some years of working on issues in ethics and aesthetics, including publishing articles on horror films, the morality of the television laugh track, and Immanuel Kant’s views on fashion, he has recently published on Austen’s use of indirect speech in Emma.
C3. Wanas Radwan, Edmonton, Alberta Region
Austen’s Whispers of Advice
In Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, Austen crafts interactions between characters with intentional gaps that invite readers to fill the silences with their own assertions, fears, and hopes. It is in these quiet spaces of each novel that Austen offers whispers of advice, unique to each individual who engages with the story. This session is an opportunity for us to engage in the diverse wonderings, curiosities, and epiphanies that emerge from what is left unsaid in Austen’s novels.
Wanas Radwan is a certificated teacher in Alberta and serves as a policy research consultant at a public school board. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Secondary Education at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include exploring how stories may influence an individual’s understanding of self.
C4. Susan Allen Ford, Mississippi Region
“A Strange Business . . . in America”: How Jane Austen Reads the World across the Atlantic
While the East Indies fired the young Jane Austen’s imagination, the mature writer turned toward the Americas. What did Austen know about the Americas? We will consider the discourse on transatlantic issues available to Austen through imaginative and discursive writing—novels, poetry, travel narratives, and political treatises—that she read (or probably read). These works provided images of the natural world, investigations of mores and morals, depictions of class and social change, and arguments about slavery, abolition, and the complicated politics of British imperialism. What image of “Austen’s America” can we perceive in her fiction?
Susan Allen Ford has been Editor of Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line since 2006. She is Professor of English Emerita at Delta State University and a frequent presenter for JASNA. She has published essays on Austen and her contemporaries, the gothic, detective fiction, and Shakespeare, and her book, What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why), was published in 2024. She is now beginning work on a history of JASNA.
C5. Hazel Jones, International Region
From Pammydiddle to Sanditon: Jane Austen’s Genius of Place
A sense of place is critical in Jane Austen's fiction, but how did she learn to create realistic locations while keeping descriptive imagery to the minimum? Austen’s teenage writings show her experimenting with geographical settings, but even then she realised the value of authentic-sounding locations, and by the time she had three published novels to her name, her genius had extended far beyond the mere process of naming. Landscapes, towns, and villages are brought into being with the lightest of touches and, in the three later novels, a keen sense of place is given full emotional expression.
Hazel Jones is the editor of the Jane Austen Society Report and author of Jane Austen and Marriage, Jane Austen’s Journeys, and The Other Knight Boys: Jane Austen’s Dispossessed Nephews. She has presented talks at JASNA AGMs in Washington, Kansas City, Williamsburg, and Victoria, and her essays have appeared in various journals, including Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line.
C6. Hilary Davidson, Fashion Institute of Technology
The Words of Regency Fashion: Closing the Gaps Between Page and Person
How did Jane Austen, her contemporaries, and their fashion media describe clothing, and what did they mean when they did? Drawing on new research undertaken for the 2025 book, A Guide to Regency Dress: From Corsets and Breeches to Bonnets and Muslin, this presentation looks at the words of fashion in use during Austen’s adult life and their slippery associations with actual garments. The language of dress from this period is not necessarily straightforward to understand now. Words commonly used to describe Regency dress such as “bonnet,” “Spencer,” “chemisette,” or “shirt” had multiple meanings and interpretations for their original wearers.
Hilary Davidson is a dress historian and curator, and Chair/Associate Professor in the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She presented on the BBC documentary Pride & Prejudice: Having a Ball and spoke at the 2024 AGM. Research sparked by her reconstruction of Jane Austen’s pelisse led to the books Dress in the Age of Jane Austen, Jane Austen’s Wardrobe, and A Guide to Regency Dress.
BREAKOUT SESSION D
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2025, 10:30am
D1. Sonjeong Cho, Seoul National University
From Liberal Austen to Transnational Austen: The Specter of Postfeminism in Mansfield Park
This session deals with the transnational reading of Mansfield Park, arguably Austen’s most patriotic and least feminist novel, with a specific focus on South Korean cultural manifestations and imaginaries of post-feminism. Austen’s representation of the nexus between rights and duties reflects her subtle negotiation between the Republican motherhood and liberal individualism. Such reformulation of rights and duties resonates with what could be elaborated as postfeminist sensibility in the contemporary South Korean context.
Sonjeong Cho is Professor of English at Seoul National University in South Korea, specializing in Austen, the Brontës, women writers, and feminist theory. She wrote a book chapter, “Queer Literacy and Transcultural Emma,” for Jane Austen in Asia. She translated Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey into Korean.
D2. Marsha Huff, Wisconsin Region
Method in Her Madness: Jane Austen’s History of England
In Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland complains that history treatises are “very tiresome,” with “men all so good for nothing and hardly any women.” Rather than complain, however, teenage Jane Austen wrote her own History of England, declaring that her aim was to prove the innocence of Mary, Queen of Scots, while condemning Queen Elizabeth, “that pest of society.” Austen’s history is ostensibly nonfiction, but she develops her stated thesis like a work of fiction, with carefully chosen facts and colorful characters—including many women. There is real method in her madcap romp through history.
Marsha Huff has presented at three past AGMs and has published essays in Persuasions On-Line: “Sir Thomas Bertram and the Slave Trade” and “Austen and Vermeer, Fellow Artists.” She was President of JASNA, 2006-2010, and co-coordinator of the 2005 AGM in Milwaukee. She is a lawyer specializing in tax-exempt organizations.
D3. Dr. Sarah Emsley, Nova Scotia Region
Books as Children
Jane Austen famously referred to Pride and Prejudice as her “own darling Child” and said of Sense and Sensibility that she could “no more forget it, than a mother can forget her sucking child.” This session will provide a brief overview of the tradition of connecting the creation of art with the creation of human life and analyze these comments from Austen’s letters in the context of her development as a writer, her experiences with publication, and her relationships with family members—especially her sisters-in-law, who experienced the risks and challenges of motherhood as well as its joys.
Dr. Sarah Emsley is the author of Jane Austen’s Philosophy of the Virtues and editor of Jane Austen and the North Atlantic. She has served as a JASNA Board Member and Traveling Lecturer and presented at twelve AGMs and several Regional meetings. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and her debut novel, The Austens, which is set partly in Halifax and imagines the friendship between Jane and her sister-in-law Fanny, will be published later this year.
D4. Dr. Theresa M. Kenney, University of Dallas
Jane Austen and the Temple of Truth: Rene Girard and Austen’s Endings
Critic René Girard asserted in Deceit, Desire, and the Novel that the ending of a novel is the “temple of truth,” meaning that all of the preceding chapters must be read in light of the closure. The way the author intends to end the story affects the way we read the entirety. Jane Austen’s attention to multiple thematic strands and rhetorical strategies in the closures of her novels shows she is a master of her craft. She teaches us to “read backwards” from the conclusion in a way that engages the reader’s memory, imagination, and powers of prognostication.
University of Dallas Professor of English Theresa Kenney has written on Austen, Bronte, Dante, Donne, Southwell, and Dickens. Her books include Women Are Not Human: A Renaissance Treatise and Responses, The Christ Child in Medieval Culture: Alpha es et O!, and “All Wonders in One Sight”: The Christ Child among the Elizabethan and Stuart Poets. Her recent Last Impressions: Jane Austen’s Endings examines Austen’s strategies for closure. She teaches the 19th-century novel and early modern and medieval literature.
D5. Amanda Halla, Maryland Region
Austen’s Genius at Conveying Complex Ideas in One Word: An Example from Willoughby in Sense & Sensibility
Austen is not known for lengthy descriptions of her characters. Instead, she sketches likenesses in a few sentences and uses well-chosen turns of phrase in conversation and succinct references to convey nuanced character traits to her contemporaries. Because of changes in lifestyle, many of these references are lost on modern readers. In Sense and Sensibility, Willoughby’s “hunters” are mentioned two times. Why was this important to highlight? What did Jane Austen assume that her audience understood from this reference? Because Austen did not participate in men’s sports, how did she know about this and what meaning her readers would assign to it?
Amanda Halla is JASNA’s Ombudsperson and has served on the Steering Committees for three AGMs.
BREAKOUT SESSION E
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2025, 1:00pm
E1. Dr. Carolyn Brown, North Carolina Region
Rachel Gevlin, Virginia Commonwealth University
Robin Henry, North Texas Region
Jason D. Solinger, University of Mississippi
Dr. Alice Villaseñor, SUNY Buffalo State University
Austen: The Adaptation Machine
One proof of Austen’s unchecked genius is the continuous effort to adapt, retell, and sequelize Austen’s fictions, from the first stage adaptation in the 19th century to the recent boom in Austen-inspired young adult fictions. This roundtable of five JASNA veterans will offer fresh takes on the pleasures, purposes, and prolificity of Austen reimaginings. Why are Austen’s fictions such useful or pliable cultural material? How do we account for Austen’s remarkable iterability? Books, films, television, and even AI-generated Austen fictions will come under scrutiny as the panel examines the enormous popularity and variety of Austen adaptations.
Carolyn J. Brown is a teacher and writer in Chapel Hill, NC. She is the former chair and current member of the JASNA Nominating Committee, the former chair of the Grants Committee, and former Regional Coordinator of JASNA-Mississippi. She has published essays on Austen in Persuasions and the Eudora Welty Review, and has presented at three AGMs. Her most recent publication is an essay in Retelling Jane Austen: Essays on Recent Adaptations and Derivative Works (2024).
Rachel Gevlin is a Term Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she teaches courses on 18th-century literature, literary theory, and women writers. Her book project explores representations of marital disunion in the 18th-century novel, and her writing on Austen has appeared or is forthcoming in English Literary History and Persuasions. She has presented three times for the Washington, DC, Region of JASNA and was a breakout speaker at the 2023 and 2024 AGMs. In 2025, she received the JASNA IVP Fellowship to conduct research at Chawton, and she is currently serving as a JASNA Traveling Lecturer.
Robin Henry holds an MLS (Library Science) and MA in Humanities. She works as a freelance editor and an adjunct professor of Humanities, and volunteers on the JASNA annual bibliography committee. She is the founder of Readerly, a book coaching platform that provides support and strategies for writers. She is the host of the podcast Read Like a Writer Book Club, where she looks at great books, past and present, through the lens of a writer.
Jason D. Solinger is an associate professor of English and Director of English Graduate Studies at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of Becoming the Gentleman: British Literature and the Invention of Modern Masculinity as well as essays on Austen and 18th-century literature and culture. His current book project examines the ways conversations about Austen have shaped our ideas about literature. Jason spoke at the 2020 and 2023 AGMs and has presented to several JASNA regional groups. In addition to being the Coordinator for the Mississippi Region of JASNA, Jason is a JASNA Traveling Lecturer.
Dr. Alice Villaseñor is the Associate Director of Civic and Community Engagement at SUNY Buffalo State University. She has published on Jane Austen and has a forthcoming book chapter about teaching Elizabeth Gaskell. A JASNA life member, she has served JASNA as the 2006 International Visitor, member of the IVP Committee, board member of JASNA and JASNA-SW, and current member of the JASNA EDI Committee. This will be her tenth time attending an AGM as a presenter.
E2. James Nagle, Puget Sound Region
Dr. Anne Fertig, Washington, DC Metropolitan Region
Jane Austen in Bath and Southampton, 1801-1809
In 1801, Jane Austen's father decided to retire and announced that they would be moving to Bath. This marks a major transition in her life. For the next eight years, following her father's retirement, Austen’s life would be characterized by a series of upheavals and displacements, including her father's death, the failed publication of Northanger Abbey, and the disastrous Harris Bigg-Wither proposal. This session will explore the impact, both immediate and long-term, of George Austen’s retirement on Austen’s life, relationships, and novels.
Jim Nagle is a semi-retired lawyer and a member of the Puget Sound Region. He is the former secretary of JASNA. He loves researching and explaining the Regency era and its effects on Austen’s life and work. He has spoken at numerous AGMs and Regions, and served as JASNA's Traveling Lecturer on topics such as Burial and Death Rituals, Inheritance, Land Transportation, the Army, Prize Money, Elections, and George III.
Dr. Anne Fertig is a literary historian and a passionate public humanist specializing in 18th-century women’s writing. Known best for her work with the Jane Austen Summer Program, Dr. Fertig co-founded the web series Jane Austen & Co. in 2019. She is also the writer and host of Finding Jane Austen, a scripted documentary podcast about Jane Austen’s life. She currently works in the museum field in Washington, DC.
E3. Dr. Margie Burns, University of Maryland
Dr. Tara Moore, Elizabethtown College
Shared Session: Jane Austen and Abolition
Dr. Margie Burns, University of Maryland
Jane Austen’s Anti-Slavery Publishers
This session will examine Austen’s anti-slavery publishers in the UK and US, who supported the cause through both nonfiction and fiction. Abolitionist periodicals and books by abolitionist writers were published by Thomas Cadell, who rejected Austen’s First Impressions; by John Murray, who published Austen’s last novels; and even by Benjamin Crosby, who purchased but did not print Austen’s Susan. Anti-slavery firms also favored authors who boosted Austen. Richard Bentley and Matthew Carey regularly published other works that paid homage to Austen as well as opposing the slave trade. Clearly, they recognized Austen’s anti-slavery alignment.
Dr. Margie Burns lectures part-time in English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and has given presentations on Austen’s novels for JASNA’s Washington, DC and Maryland Regions. Her published work includes Publishing Northanger Abbey (Vernon, 2021) and Jane Austen, Abolitionist: The Loaded History of Pride and Prejudice (McFarland, 2024), as well as articles on Austen in Persuasions, Persuasions On-line, and Notes & Queries.
Dr. Tara Moore, Elizabethtown College
Challenging the Sweet Trade: Jane Austen's Abolitionist Tight-Rope Walk in a Sugar-Fueled Society
Jane Austen’s social world was deeply entangled with the wealth of the sugar trade. What did Austen’s fragile role in her brother Edward’s social circle mean for her ability to express abolitionist sentiments in public or in her writing? This talk focuses on her interactions with the Wildman family of Chilham Castle, a family whose fortune came from enslaved labor. We’ll reconsider Austen’s fascinating correspondence to Fanny Knight about the younger woman’s potential marriage into this wealthy family. Through letters and site research in Kent, this session uncovers the tensions Austen weighed—and the silences she maintained.
Dr. Tara Moore is an Associate Professor of English at Elizabethtown College in central Pennsylvania. She leads study abroad courses to Ireland and the UK, and she enjoys introducing her students to Austen-related sites in Bath and Hampshire. She has published an article in Persuasions On-Line and has written a book about 19th-century Christmas culture. Moore is a Co-Regional Coordinator for the Maryland Region.
E4. Sharmini Kumar, International Region
Dr. Kelly Gardiner, International Region
Jane Austen: Genius and Legacy
Jane Austen created a cultural legacy, particularly for young women as readers, that many of us consciously and unconsciously perpetuate when we write, but also when we read or watch almost anything. That legacy is most clearly visible in the characters that have become almost archetypal. This session will examine some of the most memorable of Austen’s characters, focusing on the women who have become enmeshed in our experiences of reading, particularly from marginalized perspectives.
Sharmini Kumar is the founder and Artistic Director of 24 Carrot Productions, based in Melbourne, Australia. She has written, directed, and produced many performance pieces and short films, including Lovers’ Vows at Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility: The Musical (book and lyrics), Second Impressions of Pride and Prejudice, and The Margins of Persuasion. She is one of the co-founders of Austen Con, a celebration of Austen and the Regency, now in its seventh year. Her debut novel, Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective, was co-authored with Kelly Gardiner.
Kelly Gardiner’s Austen-inspired crime novel, Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective, co-authored with Sharmini Kumar, will be out in 2025. Her books include The Firewatcher Chronicles, 1917, Act of Faith, The Sultan’s Eyes, and the Swashbuckler pirate trilogy. Goddess, based on the life of Mademoiselle de Maupin, is being adapted for the screen. Kelly taught creative writing at La Trobe University for many years, and her scholarly research focuses on gender in historical fiction and biofiction.
E5. Brenda S. Cox, Georgia Region
Nili Olay, Southwest Florida Region
Joy Prevost, Greater Sacramento Region
Pecha Kucha Session
The Pecha Kucha presentation format embraces a diversity of topics, presented in a fast-paced style.
Brenda S. Cox, Georgia Region
“Reading with Delight”: Hannah More or Jane Austen?
Austen wrote that some friends were “all reading with delight Mrs. H. More's recent publication,” Practical Piety. Evangelical author Hannah More’s background and values were similar to Austen’s. However, More’s one novel and many other works far outsold Austen’s novels well into the Victorian era. More helped reform her society’s moral values and gave crucial support to abolition and the education of women and the poor, but she is largely forgotten today. Why was she so much more popular during her time, while Austen has been read “with delight” through the ages?
Brenda S. Cox wrote Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England, exploring connections between Austen’s work, her Church of England, and prominent events and people in English Christianity. Her articles appear in Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, Persuasions On-Line, and Sensibilities (JASA), and she writes online for Jane Austen’s World and Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen. She has presented on Austen and the church at four previous AGMs and various regional meetings.
Nili Olay, Southwest Florida Region
Austen at 250 and Montgomery at 150: A Century Apart and Still Going Strong
Austen and L.M. Montgomery wrote novels that are still read and revered by readers around the world in the 21st century. This talk will discuss why these novels draw readers from different life circumstances, different centuries, and different cultures. Do these novels remain relatable to each succeeding generation because of the characters, such as Anne Shirley, Matthew Cuthbert, Elizabeth Bennet, or Mr. Darcy? Or do the readers connect with the humor in the stories and the universal themes, regardless of their settings?
Nili Olay has held positions on the JASNA Board of Directors, including serving as JASNA Treasurer. She is currently on the Finance Committee. She was Regional Coordinator of the Metro NY Region, and Co-Coordinator of the 2003 and 2012 AGMs. She is among the founding members of the Southwest Florida Region, for which she gave a talk on “Transportation in Austen’s Time.” This is her 38th AGM.
Joy R. Prevost, Greater Sacramento Region
Picturing Wit and Wisdom: Can AI Imaging Capture Jane Austen’s Genius?
Jane Austen’s genius was one-of-a-kind and her writings are incomparable. Her books are constantly reprinted and many editions are illustrated. AI can “read” and utilize the text of novels, but can it engage and feel them or understand the nuances, emotions, satire, and humor as we readers and artists do? This presentation will compare and juxtapose how illustrators of Austen novels and creators of Austen art understand her characters, plots, and language versus AI-generated versions. New interpretations will range from realistic to fantasy style, watercolor to photography style, comic to serious, to name a few of the potential outcomes of AI-generated artwork.
Joy R. Prevost puts on monthly events as coordinator for her Region’s Jane Austen Book-to-Fork Cooking Club and the Jane Austen Movie Fan Club. Joy is the expert speaker for Christian Brothers High School’s AP Literature and Women and Literature students studying Pride and Prejudice. At the 2024 AGM, she presented “Jane Austen & Mead.” Joy has been dabbling in using AI as it relates to her job in philanthropy.