JASP 2025: Interview with Na'dayah Pugh
- Delicia Johnson
- 23 hours ago
- 2 min read
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. Our Regency Ball is also not an event to be missed! We can’t wait to celebrate Austen’s 250th birthday with you!
Our next interviewee is Na'dayah Pugh. Like Eric, Na'dayah will also be a familiar face to those who watch Jane Austen & Co.'s virtual events. She serves as the program's technical director. Na'dayah also provides support to the Jane Austen Collaborative and JASP. She is an undergraduate in the Honors Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring in English & Comparative Literature.
How long have you been involved in JASP? What is your position?
I’ve been a technical director at JAC since October 2023.
Which JASP activity are you most looking forward to and why?
The ball of course! I love the dancing :)
How is JASP honoring Austen's legacy and celebrating her 250th birthday?
We’re keeping her legacy alive! Her works, themes, and humor are so relevant today, and the more we keep them in conversation the more we honor her.
Why do you think Austen's Sense and Sensibility is important not only to her body of work but the entire literary canon? Why do you believe people should read it?
It’s her first published work, so in many ways it’s what started it all! It’s such a fun work of social commentary, relevant now as much as it was back then.
What do you enjoy most about Sense and Sensibility?
I'm a big fan of the Elinor–Edward relationship. They're so awkward! Constantly pining! Everything I look for in a fictional romance.
Film stills from Sense and Sensibility (1995)
What do you love about Jane Austen and her works?
They're sharp in their commentary, yes, but they're also so freaking funny. The situational comedy / character satire is unmatched.
Why should people attend JASP 2025?
To mingle with other Austen fans and have a great time!
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!
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