Jane Austen Society of North America, Greater Chicago Region

06/05/2026

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🎂🎉 It’s Austen Chat’s 3rd anniversary, and we're delighted to share "Jane Austen: Material Girl," a conversation between authors Paula Byrne and Hilary Davidson recorded at JASNA’s 2025 Annual General Meeting, while our host Breckyn is on summer break.

Both have written extensively about the significance of material objects in Austen's life and work. Tune in for their lively discussion of ordinary things—toothpick cases, lace cards, muslin shawls, flannel waistcoats, and more—and their extraordinary importance.

🎧 Listen on your favorite podcast app or on our website: https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep36/. 🎥 Or watch the video on our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/

06/03/2026

Fancy a bit of a dig in the dirt?

After 15 years Archaeo Briton archaeologists have returned to the site of Jane’s birthplace and first home to carry out the ‘Steventon Village Jane Austen 250th Anniversary Project’. The continuation project will run until July and new exciting discoveries are envisaged. What secrets will the Rectory give up for us to see in 2026!

05/07/2026

Beneath the genteel polish and decorum of Jane Austen's novels lurks a world of adultery, theft, seduction, dueling, poaching, smuggling, and more. In this episode Susannah Fullerton, author and president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, guides us through the sordid underbelly of Georgian and Regency society and explores how Austen uses crime and wrongdoing to advance her plots, shape her characters, and add color to her narrative landscapes.

🎧 Listen now on your favorite podcast app, on JASNA’s YouTube channel https://youtube.com/ , or on our website https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep35/ (where you'll also find an edited transcript).
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Illustration: “Being nervous and cross examined by Mr. Garrow” (cropped to show judges), Thomas Rowlandson, 1807 (Digital Commonwealth)
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