JASP 2025: Interview with Inger Brodey

In anticipation of JASP 2025 we’ll be interviewing our esteemed staff and speakers. This year’s four-day symposium, JASP 2025: Sensibility and Domesticity, will take place June 19-22, 2025, in historic New Bern, North Carolina. We will be focusing on Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, and considering the birth of her career as a published author and taking a transatlantic look at the world into which she was born. Program topics include medicine, birth, and domestic arts in Regency England and colonial North Carolina. We’ll be covering the aforementioned topics and celebrating Austen’s 250th birthday through a wide range of activities including workshops, small-group discussions, and workshops. And of course, our Regency Ball is an event not to be missed! We can’t wait to celebrate Austen’s 250th birthday with you! 

Our first interviewee is JASP co-founder and director, Inger Brodey. Inger is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has published extensively on Jane Austen and the history of the novel. Besides her duties with JASP she serves as president of the Jane Austen Collaborative. Her book Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness (Johns Hopkins, 2024) sheds new light on Austen’s curious endings as well as her reputation as the Queen of Happy Endings. A dedicated public humanist, Inger is the principal investigator for Jane Austen’s Desk, an innovative digital project that simulates Jane Austen’s historical workspace. 

How long have you been involved in JASP? What is your position? 

I'm a founder of the summer program, so ever since 2012!

Which JASP activity are you most looking forward to and why?

Taking part in the great town-and-gown community. Seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

How is JASP honoring Austen's legacy and celebrating her 250th birthday? 

We started the year with our Jane Austen for Teachers group, led by the indomitable Caitlin Donovan, holding a one-day in-person event called "Austen, Actually" on the lovely Duke University campus. We are officially releasing the first edition of "Jane Austen's Desk" (sponsored by NEH) on March 31, 2025. But our biggest birthday bash will be our 4 days in New Bern in June.

What do you enjoy most about Sense and Sensibility?

Volume I, Chapter 2 is a mini-masterpiece of satire and comedy. It's worth reading for that chapter alone.

What do you love about Jane Austen and her works? 

I love her tremendous insight into the human condition, and her genius for narrative invention, finding ways to depict the infinite subjectivities and mixed motives of the human heart.

Why is Jane Austen important? 

She is the greatest novelist in the English language.

Why should people attend JASP 2025? 

JASP is unlike any other Jane Austen-related event. It has the scholarly content and (optional) dress-up fun of a JASNA annual general meeting, but on a much smaller, more intimate scale. Participants get to see and hear everything; share their opinions on the presentations in small break-out discussion groups led by speakers; and engage in hands-on workshops and tours. Add a Regency Ball, live musicians, and elevenses, and you have a recipe for joyful celebration.

Outside of your work with JASP what are your Jane Austen-related projects or contributions? 

I regularly teach, publish, and present on Jane Austen. My recent book, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness (JHUP 2024), has been widely reviewed both in the US and UK. You can follow my projects on www.ingerbrodey.com.

Tickets are still available for JASP 2025. Register here! JASP 2025 is partially supported by a grant from North Carolina Humanities. We hope to see you in New Bern, NC!