Past conferences

Weekend conference held 7-9 July, at Pavilion on Northbourne, Canberra.

Full list of papers:

• ‘Elinor Dashwood the Artist: Drawing and Perception in Sense and Sensibility‘ — Yvonne Petry
• ‘The Many Duels of Sense and Sensibility‘ — Susannah Fullerton
• ‘The Changing Times of Austen’s England’ — Gary Diver
• ‘Sense and Sensibility: Bodies and the Weather’ — Amelia Dale
• ‘The Three Johns’
  • Sir John Middleton — Amanda Jones
  • John Dashwood — Ruth Williamson
  • John Willoughby — Susannah Fullerton
• ‘Pen Portraits: Sense and Sensibility in the 1890s’ — Ruth Williamson
• ‘Reversal of Fortunes: Daily Life and the Material Circumstances of the Dashwood Women’ — Yvonne Petry
• ‘Mirrors of their Parents: The Children of Sense and Sensibility‘ — Lesley Rickman
• ‘The Power of the Purse Strings’ — Pamela Whalan

Papers published in Sensibilities 67 (December 2023).

Download a copy of the conference booklet (.pdf).

Day conference held 16 July, at the Epping Club, Sydney.

Some of the presentations were recorded and are available online – access can be purchased for $40. Please contact the JASA Treasurer on treasurer@jasa.com.au. (Access is free to those who attended the conference.)

Papers published in Sensibilities 65 (December 2022):

• ‘Conspicuous Waist’, or ‘The Despots of Elegance’: Men’s Fashion 1715-1910 – Peter McNeil
• Fanny Price’s Health – Melissa Kang
• To Act or Not to Act: That is the Question (including a scene from Lovers’ Vows) – Katrina Clifford
• The Mansfield Park Quartet – Harriet Jordan
• Landscape in Mansfield Park From Novel to Screen – Victoria Bladen

Download a copy of the conference booklet (.pdf).

Day conference held 29 June, at the Epping Club, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 59 (December 2019):

• Johan Zoffany: ‘the Jane Austen of English Art’? – Stephen Foster
• Drawing Lessons for Young Ladies – Suzi Chosid

Weekend conference held 6-8 July, at Pavilion on Northbourne, Canberra.

Papers published in Sensibilities 57 (December 2018):

• “Irish I dare say”: Satire in Persuasion – Jocelyn Harris
• Money Lost and Money Found in Persuasion – Sheryl Craig
• Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers – Karin Fernald
• Sir Walter Elliot: The Constant Reader – Susannah Fullerton
• The Actual and Virtual Letters of Persuasion – Ruth Williamson

Day conference held 12 March, at the Epping Club, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 52 (June 2016):

• ‘To read novels together’: Catherine Morland’s Reading Tastes in Northanger Abbey – Elaine Bander
• Catherine Morland: Philosopher – Elaine Bander
• Three Young Men
  • John Thorpe – Amanda Jones
  • Frederick Tilney – Lorraine O’Brien
  • James Morland – Malvina Yock
• New Guides to Bath: Society and Scene in Northanger Abbey – Judy Stove

Weekend conference held 3-5 July, in Canberra.

Papers published in Sensibilities 51 (December 2015):

• The Pleasures (and Challenges) of Teaching Emma -Barbara Seeber
• Emma and Mr Knightley as Lovers: Keeping Secrets and Telling Tales – David Norton
• Miss Bates: A Medley in Three Parts – David Norton
• Emma‘s Speakers and Austen’s Word Games – Sayre Greenfield
• What to Make of Frank Churchill – Linda Troost

Day conference held 12 July, at the Epping Club, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 49 (December 2014):

• Mansfield Park-The Controversial Novel – Susannah Fullerton
• The Displacement of Fanny Price – John Wiltshire
• Conduct in Mansfield Park – Jan Merriman
• The Elephant in the Room: Slavery and Mansfield Park – Joanna Penglase
• Sex, Self and Society in Mansfield Park – Giulia Giuffre
• Fanny Price in the Garden – Damon Young

Weekend conference held 26-28 July, at Rydges Capital Hotel, Canberra.

Papers published in Sensibilities 47 (December 2013):

• North to Pemberley – Hazel Jones
• The Marriages in Pride and Prejudice – Hazel Jones
• Reading Pride and Prejudice from Afar: Alberta H Burke and American Reception of Austen – Juliette Wells
• The Afterlives of Mary Bennet – Juliette Wells

Day conference held 7 July, at the Epping Club, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 45 (December 2012):

• The Theatre and Actors of Jane Austen’s Time: what did she see, what did she enjoy? – Penny Gay
• When Jane Met William: dialogues between Austen and Shakespeare – Victoria Bladen
• Eleanor Holmes Hinkley’s ‘Lost’ Play, Dear Jane-. Jane Austen in the theatre – Russell Clark and William Phillips
• Adapting Austen’s Novels for the Stage – Additions, Omissions and Essentials – Pamela Whalan
• ‘The business of finding a play that would suit everybody’ – Penny Gay

Day conference held 2 July, at the Epping Club, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 43 (December 2011):

• Sense and Sensibility – a conversation – Tegan Bennett Daylight
• Dashwood Celebrity – Janine Barchas
• Marriage in Sense and Sensibility – Hazel Jones
• An assessment of Sense and Sensibility, the mini-series of 1981 – Ruth Williamson
• Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility. purloining Jane Austen’s creation and adding things of her own – Teresa Grace
• A Sense and Sensibility for the 21st Century – Pamela Whalan

Weekend conference held 6-8 July, at the Marque Hotel, Canberra.

Papers published in Sensibilities 41 (December 2010):

• Sanditon and the Regency – Susannah Fullerton
• Persuasion and the Regency – Joanna Penglase
• Rakes, Rattles and the Regency: Austen’s Bad Boys
  • Introduction – Sarah Ailwood
  • Willoughby and Wickham: The Appeal of a Bad Boy – Marilyn Steven
  • Henry Crawford: ‘Subde, False and Treacherous’ – Anna Steele
  • Sir Thomas Bertram: Still Climbing the Greasy Pole? – Bill Coote
• Mansfield Park and the Regency – Joanna Penglase
• Emma and the Regency – Susannah Fullerton

Day conference held 26 September, at the Epping Club, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 39 (December 2009):

• President’s Introduction & Welcome – Susannah Fullerton
• Chawton 1809-2009: Jane Austen’s Return to a Hampshire Village – Gillian Dow
• Jane Austen’s Reading and the 18th Century Woman Writer – Gillian Dow
• The Church of St Nicholas, Chawton – Paul Henningham
• Chawton Cottage – the interior – Sibylle Burkart
• The Garden at Chawton Cottage – Dianne Speakman
• Jane Austen’s Neighbours at Chawton – Catherine Barker

Weekend conference held 11-13 July, in the Hunter Valley.

Papers published in Sensibilities 37 (December 2008):

• The Manuscript of Persuasion – Jocelyn Harris
• Who’s Most to Blame?
  • Lady Russell on Trial – Ruth Williamson
  • Sir Walter through the Looking Glass – Teresa Grace
  • Mr Elliot – Susannah Fullerton
• The City and the Country in Persuasion on Film – Sayre Greenfield and Linda Troost
• There’s Something About Mary – Linda Troost
• Alias Mrs Smith – Sayre Greenfield
• ‘Talking of … Lord Byron’: Jane Austen Responds to the Byronic Hero – Sarah Ailwood
• Domestic Virtues? Homelessness and Men in Persuasion – Sarah Ailwood

Day conference held 1 September, at the Northside Conference Centre, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 35 (December 2007):

• Welcome to the Conference – Susannah Fullerton
• Becoming Elizabeth – Elizabeth Garvie
• Q&A with Elizabeth Garvie – Elizabeth Garvie
• Critics Forum – Various
• An Austen Dialogue – Jon Spence and Susannah Fullerton
• Jane Austen versus the Corporations – Andrew and Gina Macdonald

Weekend conference held 5-7 May, at Monte Pio Resort, Maitland.

Papers published in Sensibilities 32 (June 2006):

• Postcolonial Jane??? – Deirdre David
• Tradition and the Individual Talent: Jane Austen and Mansfield Park – John Richetti
• Does Fanny ‘Make’ the Place or Does the Place ‘Make’ Fanny? – Barbara Britton Wenner
• Pug – Susannah Fullerton
• The Importance of Being Edmund: names in Mansfield Park – John Wiltshire
• Portsmouth: Confinement and Escape – Barbara Britton Wenner
• Fanny Price – Charlotte Brontë

Day conference held 23 July, at the Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 31 (December 2005):

• St George and the Dandy in Jane Austen’s Emma – Joseph A Kestner
• The Men in the Background – Pamela Whalan
• Who Is Henry Tilney and Why Do We Love Him? – Harriet Veitch
• Introducing Mr Woodhouse – Susannah Fullerton
• In Defence of Colonel Brandon – Robyn Williams

Weekend conference held 23-25 July, at Monte Pio Resort, Maitland.

Papers published in Sensibilities 29 (December 2004):

• ‘A critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte’: What on earth was Jane Austen thinking of? – Jocelyn Harris
• Little Things Mean a Lot; or Why Our 10th Re-reading of Pride and Prejudice Still Surprises Us – Joan Ray
• Pride and Prejudice: The Favourite Novel?’ – Iain Topliss
• ‘Such a man as Darcy’: masculinity in transition in Pride and Prejudice – Sarah Ailwood

Day conference held 19 July, at the Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 27 (December 2003):

• Happiness Robin Grove
• Bring in the Clowns: The Comedic Monologues and Dialogues of Austen’s Fiction, or How Austen Keeps her Audience Laughing – Laurie Kaplan
• Land Reform in Jane Austen’s Time: Will Enclosure Make the Clergy Happy? – Celia A Easton
• Enclosure in Practice: Emma‘s Highbury – Bertha McKenzie
• Working Out a Happy Conclusion: Mansfield Park & the Revision of King Lear – Susan Allen Ford

Day conference held 14 July, at the Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 23 (December 2001):

• The Doctor is In: How Jane Austen’s Lovers Go from Boys to Men to Boys – Joan Klingel Ray
• Jane Austen and Adulterv – Susannah Fullerton
• Falling in Love with Jane: The pleasures and Problems of being an Austen Fan in Australia – Brigid Rooney

Weekend conference held 19-21 July, in Maitland.

Papers published in Sensibilities 25 (December 2002):

• Jane Austen, Distance Education and the Technology of the Book – George Justice
• Old Dogs & New Tricks: Austen’s Female Elders – Devoney Looser
• What did Jane Austen learn from the Theatre – Penny Gay
• Fair Seed-Time had my Soul: The Romantics at School – William Christie
• The Effect of Education, I suppose: How the Movies Taught Emma to be Clueless and gave Fanny a Tongue like a Guillotine – William A.Phillips

Day conference held 31 July, at the Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 19 (December 1999):

• Northanger Abbey: the Gothic and the Real – Alan Dilnot
• Northanger Abbey and the Theatrical World – A/Prof Penny Gay
• Desperately Seeking Susan – Dr Jon Spence
• Jane Austen & the Furniture of Northanger Abbey – Julian Bickersteth

Papers published in Sensibilities 20 (June 2000):

• Landscape in Northanger Abbey – Prof Christine Alexander

Weekend conference held 28-30 July, in Leura.

Papers published in Sensibilities 21 (December 2000):

• Welcome to the JASA Conference – Susannah Fullerton
• In Search of Elegance – Yvette Field
• Eating & Entertaining with Elegance – Maggie Lane
• Not so refined as she ought to have been? – Douglas Murray
• The Spectacles of Life – Douglas Murray
• Bath: the Epitome of Elegance – Maggie Lane

Weekend conference held 11-13 September, in Leura.

Papers published in Sensibilities 17 (December 1998):

• Jane Austen’s Clergy Families: Real & Jmagined – Irene Collins
• ‘All Beer and Roses’: Triumph of Community in Jane Austen – Tom Hoberg
• Female Work and Work Tools in Jane Austen’s World – Marlene Arditto
• Jane Austen’s Family of Fiction: From Henry and Eliza to Darcy and Eliza – Prof Joseph Wiesenfarth
• Jane Austen’s Libraries – Susannah Fullerton

Day conference held 2 August, at the Australian Maritime Museum, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 15 (December 1997):

• The Trouble with Fanny Price – Yvette Field
• Jane Austen, Religion and Mansfield Park – Prof Oliver MacDonagh
• Jane Austen: Revolutionising Masculinities – Dr Joseph Kestner
• Quiet Courage: Jane Austen & Fanny Price – Prof Emily Auerbach

Weekend conference held 6-8 September, in Wyong.

Papers published in Sensibilities 13 (December 1996):

• ‘Who can be in doubt of what followed?’ – Dr Inger Thomsen-Brodey
• Comedies of Mourning in Peter Grimes and Persuasion – A/Prof Tony Cousins
• Which Father? Religious & Filial Duty in Mansfield Park – Jennifer Evans
• The Economy of Mansfield Park – Dr Tony Voss

Day conference held 4 May, at the NSW State Library, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 13 (December 1996):

• Passing through the Pump Room – Susannah Fullerton
• Jane Austen’s Characters visit Bath  – A/Prof Penny Gay
• ‘The Post Office is a Wonderful Establishment’ – Nora Walker
• Persuasion‘s Family Reunions – A/Prof Penny Gay

Papers published in Sensibilities 14 (June 1997):

• The Architectural Pleasures of Bath – Mark Broadley

Day conference held 6 May, at the NSW State Library, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 11 (December 1995):

• Prospect and Perception: Jane Austen & Landscape – Prof Christine Alexander
• Emma at Donwell: Space & Place in Emma – Dr John Wiltshire
• The Parson Parade in Jane- Austen’s Novels – Rev Barry Bevis

Weekend conference held 16-18 September, in Canberra.

Papers published in Sensibilities 9 (December 1994):

• The Talkers and Critics of Pride and Preiudice – Prof Juliet McMaster
• Jane Austen’s Women in Love – Prof Juliet McMaster
• ‘Waterloo is in Reserve’ – Jane, Thackeray, & the Waterloo Number of Vanity Fair – Prof Rowland McMaster

Papers published in Sensibilities 10 (June 1995):

• The Accomplished Young Lady – Barbara Palmer

Day conference held 7 August, at the NSW State Library, Sydney.

Papers published in Sensibilities 7 (December 1993):

• Dr Johnson, Jane Austen’s Mentor – Prof Yasmine Gooneratne
• Effusions of Fancy: Jane Austen’s Juvenilia – Prof Christine Alexander
• Only Victory in Her:Jane Austen’s Intertextual Confidence – Dr Jocelyn Harris
• Music in Jane Austen’s Time – Robert Gay

Weekend conference held 15-17 May, in Strathavon, Wyong.

Conference papers published in Sensibilities 6 (June 1993):

• The Georgian Gentleman – Roy Walker

Weekend conference held 24-26 May, in Strathavon, Wyong.

Conference papers published in Sensibilities 4 (February 1992):

• ‘I cannot get out’ as the starling said’: The Idea of Freedom in Mansfield Park – Prof Yasmine Gooneratne
• Here’s Harmony, Here’s Repose: Landscape & Nature in Mansfield Park – Dr Tony Cousins

Weekend conference held in August.

Conference papers published in Sensibilities 2 (October 1990):

• Reading in Pride and Preiudice – Dr Kate Newey
• Highbury and Chawton – Prof Oliver MacDonagh
• The Assembly Ball – Janine Flew
• Debate: ‘Jane Austen is not relevant to the 20th century’ – Nora Walker & Rachel Peterson