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Jane Austen Society of North America

The Republic of Pemberley

Jane Austen Centre, Bath, England

Austen In Boston: A Jane Austen Book Club




Articles by local JASNA members:

For the Jane Austen Society of North America, there's always something (new) about Jane

How I Came to See Fanny Price's Light

The Privilege of My Own Profession: The Living Legacy of Austen in the Classroom

Inherited and Living Variables: The Choices of Sisters and Brothers in Mansfield Park


Click here to review the meetings that were held during:

The Harriet Avery Fund and past speakers


Bylaws (PDF)


Upcoming JASNA Annual General Meetings


Contacts

JASNA Massachusetts Region email

Regional Co-Coordinators: Julie DeWitt and Marcia Folsom
Treasurer: Kara Schaff Dean
Secretary: Jill Crowley
Webmaster: Carolyn Jack
Members of the Steering Committee: Elizabeth Philipps, Isa Schaff, Jennifer Rose, Amy Wertheim

Welcome

If you really love Jane Austen, consider joining JASNA (The Jane Austen Society of North America). We welcome all who enjoy Jane Austen's works. The JASNA Massachusetts Region includes all JASNA members who are residents of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. We have many Austen scholars among our membership as well as those who simply enjoy reading Austen and sharing their pleasure with others.

We hold five events during our membership year: four regular meetings (September, November, March and May), plus a celebration of Jane Austen's birthday in December. These events usually consist of a talk or lecture lasting about an hour, followed by discussion and light refreshments. We'd be very pleased to have you join us at our next meeting.





2023 - 2024 Season



Meetings this season will be held at 2pm, at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham, MA.

The Charles River Museum of Industry has a modern ventilation system that maintains a high percentage of fresh air in the facility. However, in order for all attendees to feel as safe and comfortable as possible, we encourage the wearing of masks. Of course, if you do not feel well, pleasae stay at home.

Some meetings will be a hybrid of in-person and Zoom. Members, check your email for the meeting notice to register for Zoom.

Meeting fee is $5 JASNA members, $10 non-members. Non-members may attend up to five events before joining JASNA.

Click here for driving directions and parking information. Parking is free on Sundays.

"It is such a happiness when good people get together -- and they always do."









Sunday, March 17, 2024

2 pm, Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation





Charlotte Gordon


Mothers and Daughters:
Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen

Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, died ten days after her daughter Mary Shelley was born. Though Shelley never knew her mother, she dedicated her life to fulfilling Wollstonecraft's dreams, writing Frankenstein and other works that upheld the ideals of women's independence. Jane Austen was also deeply influenced by Wollstonecraft's principles, so much so that some critics refer to her as Wollstonecraft's "other daughter". Like Shelley, Austen places Wollstonecraft's ideas at the center of her work, but, unlike Shelley, she was careful to cover her tracks.


Charlotte Gordon has published six books and her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The Washington Post, The Cambridge Companion to Early American Poetry and Harvard Magazine.

She has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write her new book, The Talk Circuit: Feuds, Friendships, and the Origins of the Women's Movement. Her most recent book is Mary Shelley: A Very Short Introduction. Her previous book is Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley.

A graduate of Harvard College, she received a master's degree in creative writing and a Ph.D. in history and literature from Boston University. Currently, she is the Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Endicott College.



Sunday, May 5, 2024

2 pm, Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation



Marcia Huff

Austen and Vermeer, Fellow Artists


Reviewing the novel Emma in 1816, Walter Scott compared Jane Austen's work to the genre painting of 17th-century Flemish masters. This presentation examines a dozen paintings by Johannes Vermeer and pairs seven of them with passages from Austen's novels to illustrate the comparable manner in which the two artists depicted the lives of women.

Marsha Huff is an attorney specializing in nonprofit organizations. She was co-coordinator of the 2005 AGM in Milwaukee and President of JASNA 2006-2010. Marsha was a breakout speaker at the 2019 AGM in Williamsburg and the 2021 AGM in Chicago. Her essay "Sir Thomas Bertram and the Slave Trade" is in the summer 2021 issue of Persuasions On-Line.




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