JASP 2025: Interview with Susan Allen Ford

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 next interviewee is JASP 2025 speaker, Susan Allen Ford. Susan has been involved with Jane Austen Collaborative in multiple capacities. She has also been editor of Jane Austen Society of North America's Persuasions and Persuasions On-line since 2006. Susan is the author of What Jane Austen's Characters Read (and Why) Bloomsbury, 2024). She is Professor Emerita of English at Delta State University in Mississippi. Susan's talk for JASP 2025 is titled, "Reading the Americas with Jane Austen".

How long have you been involved in JASP?

I've been involved in JASP from the beginning (2013), and I've only missed one. It's one of the best parts of my summer! I'm on the board, and I also help with the Context Corners

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

I look forward to everything--especially the talks, the discussion groups, the dance practice, and elevenses!

What is your talk about?

My talk is "Reading the Americas with Jane Austen". I'm interested in tracing what Austen would have known about the Americas--some of which might have come from her brothers, some from her reading of novels, poetry, essays, and political argument.

I'm very interested in what Jane Austen read and (of course) how that reading affected what she wrote. I hope that we'll all gain some insight into her view of the world and perhaps how her imagination worked. Since we're meeting at Tryon Palace and thinking about Regency-era America, it seems like a good time to be looking at what Jane Austen knew.

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?

Well, it's a wonderful novel. It speaks to so many concerns that we have today: how, why, and for what society values women (and, for that matter, men); why we love the people we do; sharing our feelings vs. maintaining boundaries; the grounds on which we judge or value the people around us. And it's satiric, funny, and simultaneously full of powerful emotion.

Do you have any favorite characters?

Mrs. Jennings, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer.

What do you love about Jane Austen and her works? 

That reading and rereading and discussing pay endless dividends. There are always more riches to experience.

Why should people attend JASP 2025? 

JASP is a wonderful way to come together with other readers not only to celebrate Jane Austen but to get a chance to learn and share ideas about a particular novel--in this case Sense and Sensibility. And this year we get to colonize Tryon Palace and explore New Bern. What a wonderful way to celebrate Jane Austen's 250th year!

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

I have been the editor of the Jane Austen Society of North America's journals Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line since 2006. I am an enthusiastic and active member of JASNA. In July 2024 my book, What Jane Austen's Characters Read (and Why), was published by Bloomsbury--very exciting for me!

There are only a few places left 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!