Volunteer | JASP

Jennie Batchelor

Jennie Batchelor is Professor of Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Studies and Head of English and Related Literature at the University of York. She has published widely on women writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, on early magazines, and on women's work, dress and craft. Her two most recent books are The Lady's Magazine and the Making of Literary History (2022), which won the Colby Prize, and (with Alison Larkin) the popular history-craft book, Jane Austen Embroidery (2020).

Eric Bontempo

Eric Bontempo has been involved with JASP since 2018 when he began the PhD program in English & Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has presented context corners, led group discussions, and helped to coordinate banquets, elevenses, and the Regency Balls. He is thrilled to now be one of the associate directors, and looks forward to continuing to make JASP an enriching and rewarding program. Beyond this role, he is also Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Wake Forest University. The course he is currently teaching is “The Global Jane Austen.”

Inger S.B. Brodey

Inger S. B. Brodey 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. She serves as president of the Jane Austen Collaborative and director of JASP. She co-founded JASP with James Thompson in 2012. 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.

Caitlin M. Donovan

Caitlin M. Donovan is Assistant Director of and Faculty in the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Duke University. She works extensively with community-based organizations and with pre-service teachers to develop critical literacy and pedagogical practices. Her research interests center on critical digital literacies, critical memetics, writing communities, and teacher preparation. You can find her work in English Education, Critical Memetic Literacies in English Education, Better Practices: Experts Explain How They Teach Writing Online, and Genders, Cultures & Literacies: Understanding Intersecting Identities and in public scholarship venues.

Kathryn Edelstein

Kathryn Edelstein teaches World Literature and AP English Literature at East Chapel Hill High School. She has been presenting for JASP and working with the Teacher Scholars for the past six years. Kathryn is currently pursuing a Master's in Multicultural and Transnational Literatures and lives in Hillsborough, NC.

Maizie Ferguson

Maizie Ferguson, junior at the University of Kansas, is pursuing a major in Honors English and a minor in Violin. A member of the JASP PR Team, she is serving as Registrar for the 2025 symposium. She greatly looks forward to continuing her study of Austen—with other passionate Janeites—in academia and beyond.

Susan Allen Ford

Susan Allen Ford has been editor of Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line since 2006 and is involved with the Jane Austen Collaborative in a variety of capacities. She is particularly fond of JASP and JANE AUSTEN & Co. Her book, What Jane Austen's Characters Read (and Why), was published by Bloomsbury in 2024. Susan is Professor Emerita of English at Delta State University in Mississippi.

Peter Graham

Peter Graham is Professor Emeritus of English at Virginia Tech. He has written and lectured widely on Jane Austen. Among his publications is Jane Austen & Charles Darwin: Naturalists and Novelists. He currently is leading a three-semester Jane Austen Book Club through Virginia Tech's Lifelong Learning Institute.

Sarah Hurley

Sarah Hurley is currently working towards her bachelor's degree in English at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and recently completed her undergraduate Honors thesis titled "'Let Other Pens Dwell': On Austen, Authorship, and the Janeite-Centric Narrative." In 2022, she interned with Arcturus Publishing in London, UK, and earlier this year she was awarded a Wentworth Fellowship to research Shirley Jackson's life and legacy in North Bennington, Vermont. When Sarah is not working late into the night to submit her classwork on time, you will likely find her reading, writing, or pretending to be the heroine of her very own Austen novel.

Heather King

Heather King is a professor of English at the University of Redlands in Southern California. Her courses include classes on both Austen and Shakespeare in Adaptation, as well as Eighteenth-Century Literature.

Laura Klein

Laura Klein, pianist and historical musicologist, specializes in British keyboard music and performance practices of the long 18th century. Her current research is on the music contained in the Austen Family Music Books collection. She founded The Jane Austen Playlist in 2019, a historical music project that features the music of the Austen family in digitized notations, companion recordings, and dramatically narrated performances. An active performer and presenter, she gives frequent concerts and lecture recitals online, throughout the United States, and in the United Kingdom

Deborah Knuth Klenck

A veteran of many JASPs, Deborah Knuth Klenck recently retired as Professor of English at Colgate University. Her most recent writing is about Jane Austen: the Juvenilia feature in the forthcoming MLA volume "Teaching Comedy" and the novels' use of dancing and/or sex appears in "Jane Austen, Sex, and Romance," from the University of Rochester Press (2022). She’s very relieved to be invited back to JASP despite the severely limited popularity of her contribution to last year's ice-breaker activities: “Write your own Epitaph!” She promises something more fun this year.

Sarah Marsh

Sarah Marsh is an Associate Professor of English at Seton Hill University. Her book manuscript, Novel Constitutions: Bodies of Law and Fictions of Race, 1688-1818, is under review with Oxford University Press's series in Law and Literature. She participated in the first Jane Austen Summer Program many years ago as a graduate student at UNC, and she is delighted to return to the fold this summer.

Adam F. McCune

Adam F. McCune has taught at Baylor University and served digital humanities projects such as the William Blake Archive and Jane Austen’s Desk. In addition to writing academic articles, he has co-authored The Rats of Hamelin (a young adult fantasy novel), reads classic poems aloud on YouTube, and adapts Jane Austen for the stage each year for the Jane Austen Summer Program.

Anna Neill

Anna Neill is a librarian and historian who centers her research in domestic arts and women's social movements. She volunteers and interprets 18th and early 19th century cooking and sewing at North Carolina State Historic Sites.

Na'dayah Pugh

Na’dayah Pugh is an undergraduate in the Honors Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring in English & Comparative Literature. She’s been a technical director for the Jane Austen Collaborative since 2023, and is honored to be a part of a community so dedicated to keeping Austen’s legacy alive.

Breckyn Wood

Breckyn Wood has been a freelance writer and editor for ten years, mainly working in higher education. She is host of the popular Jane Austen Chat podcast and has authored several children’s books, including Maria’s Many Colors and Peter the Persnickety, both published by The Good & the Beautiful. More books in the Maria series are forthcoming in 2024. Breckyn is also an independent Jane Austen scholar. Her paper, “Austen Reworking Smith: Sympathy, Objectivity, and Moral Passivity in Mansfield Park” was published in the spring 2023 issue of Persuasions, a peer-reviewed journal produced by the Jane Austen Society of North America.

Mary Thomas Watkins

Mary Thomas Watkins is a third-year at UNC-Chapel Hill, majoring in English and American Studies with a minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She writes for The Daily Tar Heel and Coulture Magazine, serving on the Editorial Boards of both publications. She's worked in regional historical sites and heritage centers, researching and accessing artifacts from early colonial settlement of Appalachian North Carolina.

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