JASP 2025: Interview with Michelle Taylor

Delicia Johnson
May 7
9 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. 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 panelist, Michelle Taylor. Michelle will be presenting a paper for our "Austen and Her Afterlives" panel, titled 'Choose Your Dashwood'. This year's 'Austen and Her Afterlives' panel, will focus on adaptations of Sense and Sensibility in any medium.

It's a pleasure to meet you Michelle! Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi, I’m Michelle Taylor and I am so excited to be joining the panel for JASP 2025! I grew up in West Texas where my early loves were music, reading and theatre and would probably have been considered accomplished, even by Mr. Darcy’s standards. I studied all three in college but started my career as a choral director before moving through elementary drama and music, and middle school music, English and Theatre. I started my family by marrying my husband with his three gorgeous daughters and then we had one more of our own, a little Bennett brood. I have always been a reader and fell in love with Austen from the first time I watched Emma in 1996. After that, I couldn’t get enough. Now I’ll read anything set in the period, especially sapphic or Achillean retellings, and I adore Bridgerton or other visually stunning representations on the theme. Academically, I’m always looking for something to tickle my brain and presenting a paper like this is the perfect jump back into the fun of being a student I’ll always miss! I can’t say thanks enough for the opportunity!

Will this be your first time attending JASP?

I attended in 2023 and I’m so excited it’s back this year!

What was your experience like?

Oh gosh! It was transformative. I was so excited to even find it, and I literally found it scrolling on social media. I found JASP on Instagram and immediately registered the day that it opened. I was like this is my thing for sure. I absolutely have to go. I stayed in the dorms, and I didn't know anybody. But I met my roommate and she was delightful and we had the best time. I'm still in contact with her. We met a couple of other people, and we are still in contact, too. I actually hung out with one of them last summer. I had such an amazing time. I bought a dress for the ball, and I took semi-professional pictures before I left. I just fell in love with the whole atmosphere of people who had such a wonderful connection to the same things that I loved. I just thought it was just amazing-the fact that we have something like that here and not across the pond. I didn't even have to go to England to experience it. I loved that it was accessible to everyone, and I just thought it was a wonderful experience.

Which JASP activity are you most looking forward to?

Oh, the dancing!

What is your presentation about?

I’m presenting a paper on my social media experiment entitled 'Choose Your Dashwood' which uses scenarios from the novel Sense and Sensibility to gather data on what a modern reader might choose when given the option of taking the path of Elinor or Marianne.

Film still from Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Why did you choose this topic?

I wanted to challenge the notion that women’s preferences skew more logical in a postfeminist society and reflect on the fact that Austen’s understanding of human nature is still as relevant today as it always has been.

Can you share a bit about your background and what piqued your interest in your topic?

I’m a longtime reader. I grew up reading and surrounded by readers. My parents were both teachers so we had books, and we were always reading. I grew up to be a teacher as well. Of course in college you get really busy, and I came back reading fiction after college and after family life slowed down a bit. One of the first things I did was sat down and read all of Austen in just a few weeks. I just felt that there was so much to learn from her sly wit and social commentary. My favorite is Emma, and I have like 30 editions of it - I can’t stop collecting those.

And when I started to think about what I would like to bring to the table to possibly present I just really wanted to get people engaged with the material. People ask me all the time, how do I start? How do I get into Austen? I think people are very intimidated by the idea of getting into the material. I always suggest that people pick one novel and watch the movie first. Watch it first, get into the language, get a feel of the story, and then pick up the book. Now you have an idea of how the language sounds, and the rhythm. I think that one of the biggest hurdles is getting into the language. For people who don’t have the literary background to understand the language, hearing it through the adaptations really helps.

I want people to see how universal Austen’s works are regardless of how much time has passed and how different society is now. There are still so many similarities in how we interact with people and what we’re thinking. Those kinds of things haven’t changed. So I was thinking, ‘How can I get people to engage in that way?’ And I definitely thought about social media. And then I thought about some kind of choose your own adventure to where people are not just engaging once but engaging over and over again to see how the story progresses and to see how their decision-making moves along with the narrative. I thought that would be really valuable to give them a chance to be a part of the story.

How do you think social media plays a role in how we recreate or reimagine Austen's work and also in continuing to talk about her work?

I think it’s a really great medium for talking about her works and for getting new people to experience her works. One of the main tenets of my experiment is to see how Austen put a fine point on human nature and was able to really explore that in her works. Even people in a post feminist, post modern society act and react in ways that are universal across time and across mediums as well. The way that we make decisions in our daily lives, whether small or large, really reflect back to what comes to the heart of our decisions - this idea of “is it a ‘sense’ decision or ‘sensibility’ decision?” In a lot of ways I think we will choose things that really speak to our heart, that bring us back to what we truly want in the depths of our soul, as opposed to what we’re thinking is the most logical choice or the thing that we think is going to bring us the most happiness or fulfillment. Elinor tries to go against that as much as she can and really tries to make the choices that make the most sense but when it comes down to it, even she is driven ultimately by what she wants in her heart most, not just for herself but also for Marianne and for the rest of her family. So I think that that's the way the experiment will play out. Ultimately people will make choices that would come back to what they want the most in their hearts.

Based on what you know about Jane Austen, how do you think she would feel about social media?

I think she would be cautious but optimistic about how people connect in that way. I think she would feel the influence of her family. She definitely felt like she wanted to put herself out there. She wanted to be known and have these connections to people. I feel like her family was more like we need to insulate you and protect you- the idea of Cassandra burning her letters and trying to keep her reputation protected and the way her nephew spoke about her after her death as his sweet Aunt Jane. But we know she was feisty and had a lot of modern tendencies and thoughts. So I think with social media she would be willing to get out there and interact with people and put her thoughts and feelings out there. But people around her would be like ‘No, calm down and let’s keep some of that to ourselves’. But I also think that even today we decide how much of ourselves we’re going to put out into the world and how much are we going to protect ourselves as we do that.

Do you think she would have a favorite platform? And how do you think she would engage?

I definitely feel that she would’ve been a pre-X or Twitter girl. Just very epistolary- fully completed thoughts. And then engage with people as they comment. I don’t think she would be very image oriented, but that might be kind of a biased opinion just because she didn’t have that option to be image oriented. In my head I kind of equate her with a Lady Whistledown, not in the gossip sense but just snippets of what’s happening and her opinion about it in that snide, witty way she has in her social commentary. But obviously she’s not going to give any specific information like who’s involved. Maybe something like ‘Isn’t it interesting that people do this in this way? I wonder what people think about that?’ and then she would engage with people as they comment.

It’s funny that you mentioned Emma as your favorite novel because I was thinking that of all the Austen heroines Emma Woodhouse would definitely be a social media queen.

Oh definitely! For sure she would be on Tik Tok.

Is there a character from Sense and Sensibility that you think would be very social media savvy?

Oh Marianne, for sure! I think she would be an Instagram girlie. She’ll be taking pictures of sunrises and flowers and giving all her reflections on what she’s seen throughout the day.

What do you hope attendees take away from your presentation?

Jane Austen and her novels are for everyone. I don’t want anyone to feel that they can’t be a part of this community or that we’re insular because we’re so involved with Jane Austen. I want everyone to feel that they can be part of this and be touched by this material. There is something for everyone, and there is a character somewhere that they can relate to or that they can hate. So I just want to give them the idea that we can all reach out to people everywhere and give them a piece of the joy that Austen brings to us.

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?

I think it’s so important to see the relationship between the two sisters when we consider Jane and Cassandra and Cassandra’s decisions about Jane’s legacy after her death. She had to shape the narrative of her reputation while her body work could speak for herself. She was the protector, I think, like Elinor Dashwood shielding her sister from harm.

Do you have a favorite Sense and Sensibility character?

My favorite character is Elinor because she has to navigate her heart while fighting her head and I resonate so much with that. Plus, Emma Thompson just did this so well! But Colonel Brandon is such a perfect hero! I love his quiet strength and tenderness.

Film stills from Sense and Sensibility (1995)

What do you love about Jane Austen and her works?

The most beautiful thing about Austen for me is her keen eye and wit. What a wonderful gift to later readers to have such a deep glimpse into this strata of society: their motivations, machinations, and mannerisms.

Image from the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation

Why is Jane Austen important?

Jane Austen’s place in the canon is so important because we need her female voice to represent the female voices that came before her and that she learned from and built upon. And then she influenced so many more up to this day. Her perspective is invaluable.