 |
Jane Austen Society of North America 2008 Annual General Meeting, Chicago, Illinois "Jane Austen's Legacy: Life, Love, & Laughter" |
| Welcome | Hotel | Local Attractions | Plenary Speakers | Special Events |
| Opening Panel | Mysteries and Music |
|
||||||||||
|
Special Events
| Thursday - Curtain Raiser | |
| Visualizing Jane Austen and Jane Austen
Visualizing For our Thursday evening Curtain Raiser, Jeff Nigro will give his slide/lecture, "Visualizing Jane Austen and Jane Austen Visualizing." Jeff Nigro is Director of Adult Programs at the Art Institute of Chicago, a member of JASNA Greater Chicago Region, and a favorite speaker on art and culture. A reception will follow. The Art Institute is free to the public Thursday evenings, 5-8pm. Take advantage of this opportunity to see a world renowned collection and hear an informative and entertaining talk. More details will follow. |
 |
| Saturday - Interlude |
| Romance Fiction in the Wake of Austen
Contemporary critics and phrase-makers may link romance fiction with terms like "Post-Austen, post-Regency, post-modern, and perhaps even post-romantic", but never Post-Passion. Four experts on romance in life and literature bring us up to date on the where's and why's of romance since Austen's time. This panel may be designed as an interlude between Banquet and Ball at the AGM; however, we assume that Romance is a topic that never is, or never has, an interlude. |
| Pamela Regis Pamela Regis is Professor of English and Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland where she teaches the Austen course. In her A Natural History of the Romance Novel (U Penn Press, 2003), she defines the romance novel and argues that Pride and Prejudice is the best one ever written. She led breakout sessions at both the L.A. and Tuscon AGMs. |
 |
 |
Eric M. Selinger Eric Selinger is Associate Professor of English at DePaul University where he teaches courses on Modern and Contemporary Poetry and on popular Romance Fiction. He is the author of What Is It Then Between Us? Traditions of Love in American Poetry (Cornell UP, 1998) and co-editor of several collections of essays. He is founder of the RomanceScholar Listserv and "Teach Me Tonight," a collaborative blog about romance fiction. In 2006-7 he received a research grant from the Romance Writers of America for an ongoing project on the art of reading Romance Fiction. |
| Mary Bly/Eloisa James Mary Bly is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department, Fordham University. A Shakespearean scholar, she specializes in plays written for boy companies. Queer Virgins and Virgin Queans on the Early Modern Stage was published by Oxford University Press in 2000. The Geography of Puns was published in the PMLA in January, 2007. As Eloisa James she writes bestseller historical romances, the kind not celebrated in Shakespeare Quarterly. Her current release is Desperate Duchesses, published by Harper Collins in June, 2007. |
|
 |
Sarah S. G. Frantz: (Panel Organizer and Chair) Sarah Frantz is Assistant Professor of Literature at Fayetteville State University, NC and a Chemical Officer in the Army National Guard. A specialist in Romantic-era British women novelists, Sarah’s favorite is Jane Austen. A regular speaker at JASNA events, Sarah spreads the gospel of Austen at every opportunity. She is currently working on two book-length academic projects, one on popular romance fiction and another on the way women writers construct male characters. |
