JASP 2025 ~ Speakers, Staff & Discussion Leaders

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).

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 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 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.

Meredith Dishmon is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in English, and an incoming J.D. Candidate at the University of North Carolina School of Law. She recently completed her senior honors thesis, entitled "Fortune and Faults: The Distribution of Wealth in Jane Austen's Novels." In her thesis, Meredith examines Austen's perspective on various wealth distribution systems, the increasing trend toward democracy in the chronology of her novels, and how these perspectives contribute to her lasting appeal among contemporary audiences.

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, among other journals, and in public scholarship venues.

Nellie Downie recently earned a Master's degree in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University. She received her undergraduate education from the University of Texas at Austin and her pedagogical training through the UTeach-Liberal Arts program. Her research interests include 19th-century British literature, Romanticism, popular culture, fan studies, pedagogy, and accessibility; she lives for the intersection of any and all the above areas.

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, 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. Maizie is also passionate about the digital humanities and is excited to make the JASP scavenger hunt for Jane Austen's Desk.

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.

Jeremy Gershman "Mr. Charles Steplively" has been providing his unique manner of Country Dance instruction, whilst delighting audiences with his scintillating humor, for over a dozen years.  He has led 18th and 19th dancing at historic locations such as Battersea in Petersburg, VA, Patrick Henry’s Scotchtown and the Kershaw-Cornwallis House in Camden, SC.  As a choreographer, Mr. Steplively has set authentic Regency dance for productions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility; and as a dancer has regularly performed historical dance at locations. Mr. Steplively is the incumbent Dancemaster for the Regency Society of Virginia.

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. Peter has graced JASP with his presence for over a decade.

Sarah Hurley holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature and Culture from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she completed her Honors thesis on Jane Austen. She presented her research on Austen fandom at JASP 2023 and currently serves as a JASP blogger and manager for the Janeite Spotlight series. Sarah is eager to pursue a graduate degree in English literature, with particular interests in gothic studies and feminist theory.

Teresa Ibeanu is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She enjoys Austen novels and adaptations, and she is excited to engage with the wider community of Austen scholars and enjoyers through JASP.

Delicia Johnson is a library assistant and amateur scholar. She has a general interest in the long 18th century with a focus on women's writing, female education, Gothic fiction, and Romanticism. She leads the JASP PR team and serves as a co-host for Jane Austen & Company. 

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. Heather is a veteran of JASP, serving as Secretary of the Jane Austen Collaborative board of directors, having chaired numerous adaptation panels, and always delighting the discussion groups that she has led.

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

Before moving to Richmond, VA, in 2023, Erin Mackie was Professor of English and three-term Department Chair at Syracuse University. Her academic publications center on eighteenth-century literature, culture, and society.  A great fan of fiction, she has frequently taught Jane Austen's novels in generalist classes and graduate seminars. She is the author of the provocatively titled: 

Rakes, Highwaymen, and Pirates: The Making of the Modern Gentleman in the Eighteenth Century and 

Market à la Mode: Fashion, Commodity, and Gender in The Tatler and The Spectator.

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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, both in the theatricals and as a context corner speaker, and she is delighted to return to the fold this summer.

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. You can purchase a copy of his collected theatrical adaptions of Austen juvenilia at our bookstore.

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. She has made exciting discoveries about transatlantic colonial and Regency cook books (or receipt books).

Megan EB Poff is a voice professor at York College of Pennsylvania and Sight & Sound Conservatory. She has an M.M. in Voice from Lee University and an M.A. in English from Millersville University. She will attend Temple University this fall 2025 for her English PhD with an emphasis in music criticism. Her interests include: historical music criticism, the music of Jane Austen, ballad singing, and vocal pedagogy. She lives in Strasburg, PA with her husband, two boys, cat Starsky, and Lady Catherine de Strasburg her spoiled Maine Coon who rules them all.

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, served as an intern at JASP 2023, and is honored to be a part of a community so dedicated to keeping Austen’s legacy alive.

Sarah is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of Digital Humanities at Marshall University. She has been helping with JASP since 2014. She is a Director of JASP and a member of the Jane Austen Collaborative (JAC) board of directors, as well as the Project Manager and Co-Creator of Jane Austen’s Desk, an NEH Digital Project for the Public, sponsored by JAC.

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. ​

Ava Wegerbauer earned her MA in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon, following a BA in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research centers on African and Caribbean postcolonial literature, as well as the representation of race in popular culture. She developed an interest in Jane Austen whilst studying at Cambridge University and is excited to be a part of and learn more through JASP!

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 soon. 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.​​​​​​​

Lena Yasutake enjoys sharing Austen with new and diverse audiences through her work with The Imaginists, the educational branch of the Holy Theatre. She is an actress, director, producer, playwright and costume designer. Her latest presentation, “Jane Austen Spills the Tea” exploring Austen’s wicked wit and the global role of tea, will be featured at the upcoming Jane Austen Festival at Herritage Village in Ohio.

Emma Zuder graduated with her Master of Arts in Literary and Cultural Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, following her BA in English Literature at Seton Hill University. Emma studies British Literature in the 18th and 19th century, utilizing a Cartesian framework to study the construction of gender, sexuality, and race. Emma is pursuing a PhD candidacy in the Fall. As a long-time fan and young scholar of Austen, Emma's excited to be a part of the Jane Austen Program and meet other dedicated Janeites!

Nick Parleir is an actor and model represented by Evolution Models and Talent. Hailing from the great metropolis of Eden, NC, he has appeared in many wonderful theatrical projects across the world. Outside of acting, Nick enjoys playing basketball, strumming on his guitar, and has been in a complicated, on-again/off-again relationship with the gym for many years. He is incredibly honored to take part in The Jane Austen Summer Program.

Joseph Farmer has a B.A. in Dramatic Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has appeared recently at the Little Theatre of Winston Salem, as Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, and as Don Kirschner in Beautiful! The Carole King Musical. He is grateful to be a part of this special event celebrating one of his favorite authors.

Tara Raczenski is a free-lance theatre enthusiast who has an equal passion for all things Austen.  A member of JASNA for many years and a regular participant in JASP Theatricals, she is excited to attend her first AG assembly in October. Tara credits Jane Austen with inspiring her love of costume design, which she has been pursuing as a career after assisting with a production of Sense & Sensibility in 2015.  She is also an aspiring playwright, having recently seen two of her Austen adaptations (Pride & Prejudice: A New Musical Comedy, and Persuaded: A Play With Music) produced in both NC & VA.  Her adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow will be produced October 2025 at Snow Camp Theatre in NC.