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 Sarah Marsh. A regular JASP attendee from its inception Sarah is now a co-director and speaker. Sarah is an associate professor of English at Seton Hill University. Her research and teaching are in literature and culture of the long 18th century, with a focus on the Atlantic literary history of race and slavery. Along with her duties as co-director Sarah will give a lecture titled"The Constitutional Safeguard of a Flannel Waistcoat": Sense and Sensibility and the Government of the Self".
How long have you been involved in JASP? What is your position?
I've been involved with JASP since its first year. I was originally involved as a graduate student at UNC; now I'm joining as a co-director. I was pregnant with my daughter, Emma, during the first JASP; she turns 12 this summer!
Which JASP activity are you most looking forward to and why?
I love the ball!--but I also really love the small group discussions.
What is your lecture about?
'The Constitutional Safeguard of a Flannel Waistcoat': Sense, Sensibility, and the Government of the Self" will investigate how themes of exposure and concealment in Austen's novel tell us universal truths about the nature of human beings, and the societies in which we live.
What inspired this topic?
This topic grows from my book project, which studies the role of the "constitution" in eighteenth-century literature and culture. During this time "constitution" signaled both the individual body and the wider body politic. In my lecture on Sense and Sensibility, I will draw out the idea that the way human beings understand and govern themselves has significant implications for how well (or not!) we live with one another in society.
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?
Sense and Sensibility is a novel about the beauty and the complexity of the human interior; it studies how our reason and our feelings make us who we are. I can't think of a more important book for people to read at a time when our feelings seem to play an outsized role in the way we live as a society--and when we are faced with new and serious questions about why human beings are different from artificial intelligence.
Do you have any favorite scenes from Sense and Sensibility?
This answer comes from my students at Seton Hill, who could not get enough of the scene where Willoughby shows up intoxicated to tell Elinor the truth about his feelings for Marianne. One of the best moments from class this term was when one student exclaimed in total exasperation: "Wait--she's been fighting for her life, and he drunk dials her?!" The scene gives us this rare and wonderful opportunity to consider that Willoughby, not just Marianne, is a figure of sensibility--and it helps us to see that the culture of sensibility is with us, still.
Film stills from Sense and Sensibility (2008)
What do you love about Jane Austen and her works?
I am blessed to know some very funny people, but Jane Austen makes me laugh like no other person can make me laugh.
Why is Jane Austen important?
Jane Austen is important because she saw truth in human folly, and made it into art.
Why should people attend JASP 2025?
It's way too much fun to miss!
Outside of your work with JASP what are your Jane Austen-related projects or contributions?
I teach and publish on Jane Austen; I also used to have a podcast about great books, and there's a fun episode about Pride and Prejudice that folks might enjoy. The podcast episode can be found on this page: https://ivy.fm/podcast/politics-and-the-humanities-879034
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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