Join us for JASNA Southwest’s 40th anniversary and our annual Jane Austen birthday celebration on Saturday, December 7, at the University of Southern California’s beautiful Town & Gown ballroom. JASNA SW’s very first meeting, on December 14, 1979, was held at USC, so it’s fitting that we’ll gather here again to commemorate our fourth decade. Register now!

Our topic will be “What’s Next for Jane Austen?” and we’ll be joined by two dynamic and popular Austen scholars, Janine Barchas and Devoney Looser. We have some special surprises in store as well. You won’t want to miss it! We’ll start the day with continental breakfast and white elephant sale at 8:30 a.m., with the program to commence at 9:30 a.m.

Janine Barchas joined the University of Texas at Austin in 2002 after teaching at the University of Auckland in New Zealand for five years. She is the Luann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor in English Literature at UT Austin. She combines book history with literary criticism in both her research and teaching. She has twice been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and has received the Alpha of Texas Award for Distinction in Teaching from the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Devoney Looser is the author of The Making of Jane Austen. She is Foundation Professor of English at Arizona State University and author or editor of seven other books on literature by women. Her recent writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Salon, The TLS and Entertainment Weekly, and she’s had the pleasure of talking about Austen on CNN twice.
Get your photo taken with an Austen screen hero in our photo booth! Share memories of JASNA Southwest meetings past.