Program Schedule – July 17 + 19, 2026
A note on time: All listed times are in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Convert to your time zone here.
Links below will default to the direct video or the presenter’s channel, so you might have to scroll to their uploads at the time of programming.
Friday, July 17, 2025 At-A-Glance
10 PM UTC – Is Charlotte Lucas Aromantic? – Frances Duncan (Read more)
11 PM UTC – Jock Austen: Regency Sports & Literature – Courtney Birnbaum (Read more)
Saturday, July 18, 2025 At-A-Glance
10:00 AM UTC – The Mansfield Park Quartet – Harriet Jordan (Read more)
10:30 AM UTC – Murder Most Austen: Jane Austen and the Rise of Detective Fiction – Lucy Andrew (Read more)
5:00 PM UTC – Sweating to the 1800s: A Retro Austen Themed Aerobics Routine – Andrea Schwartz, Kim Kalish (Read more)
5:30 PM UTC – Anatomy of a scene: Catherine and Eleanor (inspired by Northanger Abbey) – Lucy Knight (Read more)
6:00 PM UTC – Anxious Mothers & Independent Daughters: Maternal Authority in Jane Austen – Sydney Fargis (Read more)
6:30 PM UTC – The rise of the tenant farmer in Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ – Canab Mahamed (Read more)
7:00 PM UTC – A Battle of Unsung Adaptations – Eden Appiah-Kubi (moderator), Rhonda Watts, Kate Shea, and Shana Jackson (Read more)
Sunday, July 19, 2025 At-A-Glance
10:00 AM UTC – From AO3 to TikTok: Jane Austen, Fanfiction, and the Online Fan Communities That Keep Her Alive – Juliette Cousin (Read more)
1:00 PM UTC – Everything Old is New Again: The Rise of Regencycore – Lisa Rabey (Read more)
2:00 PM UTC – Jane Austen, Ruining Lives Since 1811: A review of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life – Kate Zarrella (Read more)
2:30 PM UTC – How Death is Different: A comparison of funerary, burial, and mourning practices from Regency England to today – Lacy Phillips (Read more)
3:00 PM UTC – The Other Bennet Sister Postmortem Discussion – Amanda-Rae Prescott (Read more)
5:00 PM UTC – Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: Reading the Women that Inspired Austen & the Writers Who Continue Her Legacy – Tiffany Cruz (Read more)
9:00 PM UTC – Everything Nourishes What Is Strong Already – Tara Clarkson (Read more)
10:00 PM UTC – Northanger Snacky: A Gothic/Regency Snack Break – Bianca Hernandez-Knight (Read more)
11:00 PM UTC – Sense & Adaptability: A Sense & Sensibility Deep Dive – Briana Michelle Meyer (Read more)
Friday, July 17, 2025 Program Descriptions
10 PM UTC – Is Charlotte Lucas Aromantic?
Charlotte Lucas describes herself as “not romantic.” Does that mean she’s aromantic? Views of aromanticism vary, Frances will speak from lived experience.
Presenter:
Frances Duncan (she/they) is an author, host of the Amateur Austenite podcast, and founder of the Jane Austen Society of Aotearoa New Zealand. As a life coach for creative and neurodiverse people, Frances tailors her approach to meet individual needs.
www.francesduncandoes.com
www.instagram.com/francesduncandoes
11 PM UTC – Jock Austen: Regency Sports & Literature
Catherine Morland loved baseball, and we love Catherine Morland, or at least her author! Join Olympic sports broadcaster Courtney Birnbaum on a review of Regency era athletics and the authors whose writing mentions them, especially Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.
Presenter:
Courtney Birnbaum is a middle school PE teacher, an avid comics reader, and a future Olympic torchbearer. Originally working in publishing and then animation, Courtney completed her Master’s of Fine Arts from Grady College, University of Georgia, with a thesis project adapting Northanger Abbey into a modern cartoon, a short animated version of which can be viewed here: https://birnbaumcc.com/current-work
This is her third time presenting at Virtual Jane Con. Find her on socials @harmonicacave.
Saturday, July 18, 2025 Program Descriptions
10:00 AM UTC – The Mansfield Park Quartet
Many people have strong – but conflicting – views on the four characters at the centre of Mansfield Park: Fanny Price, Edmund Bertram, Mary Crawford and Henry Crawford. In this video I will look at each of them in turn, drawing on a close reading of the novel to consider what they are like, why they behave the way they do, and why we like or dislike them. Questions to be considered include:
Is Fanny ‘too good’?
Why are Mary and Henry attracted to Edmund and Fanny?
Mary Crawford: villain or victim?
How does Henry’s response to Fanny’s refusal compare with Darcy’s response to Elizabeth’s refusal?
Why is it hard to like Edmund?
Presenter:
Harriet (she/her) runs the podcast Reading Jane Austen, and is Vice President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia. She read her first Jane Austen novel at the age of 15, and while at university wrote her Honours thesis on Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. Her favourite Jane Austen novel is Persuasion. She lives in Sydney, works for an educational publisher, and has been a member of the Australian Fencing Team
10:30 AM UTC – Murder Most Austen: Jane Austen and the Rise of Detective Fiction
A quarter of a millennium after her birth, Jane Austen is still celebrated for her cutting wit, happily-ever-after romances, feisty heroines and brooding heroes. But mystery, crime and transgression are also at the heart of Austen’s novels. Join Dr Lucy Andrew, author of the Harriet Smith Investigates series, as she considers Austen as a proto-detective novelist and explores the influence she had on the development of the detective genre, particularly through the creation of techniques and characteristics that became staples of Golden-Age detective fiction in the interwar period, including: the rise of the female detective and the secret sleuth; the closed community where everyone is keeping secrets; the unreliable narrator; misdirection; and hiding clues in plain sight. Using Emma as a case study, and expanding on the findings of other critics, including crime writer P. D. James, she will explore the parallels between Austen’s work and the detective outputs of Agatha Christie and co, including the great-granddaughter of Jane Austen’s brother James, Lois Austen-Leigh, who penned four Golden-Age mysteries in the 1930s.
Presenter:
Lucy Andrew is a crime writer, crime fiction scholar and former Senior Lecturer in English Literature with research specialisms in crime fiction, children’s and young adult fiction, popular culture and creative writing. She has a PhD in English Literature from Cardiff University. Her debut novel, A Very Vexing Murder – a cosy crime retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma featuring con-woman-turned-detective Harriet Smith and the first book in the Harriet Smith Investigates series – is out now with Corvus (Atlantic Books) in the UK and William Morrow (HarperCollins) in the US. Her academic publications include The Boy Detective in Early British Children’s Literature and edited collections Crime Fiction in the City: Capital Crimes with Catherine Phelps and The Detective’s Companion in Crime Fiction: A Study in Sidekicks with Samuel Saunders. She is a member of the Jane Austen Society UK and the Jane Austen Society of North America and she has spoken at the Jane Austen Festival, Bath.
Website: https://www.lucyandrew.com/
Instagram: @drlucyandrew
X: @lucyvandrew
Facebook: Lucy Andrew
Bluesky: @lucyvandrew
5:00 PM UTC – Sweating to the 1800s: A Retro Austen Themed Aerobics Routine
Put on your leg warmers and pump up the jams, because it’s time to Sweat to the 1800s! This retro aerobics workout is inspired by Jane Austen’s works and Jane Fonda’s hair. Take a turn about the room with Kim and Andrea; it is so refreshing! Make sure to grab a yoga mat, some books (for resistance training), and a bottle of water. Your figure will appear to the greatest advantage in walking and jamming with Jane. This workout is for all ages, activity levels, and abilities!
Presenter:
Kim Kalish (she/her) is an award-winning storyteller, writer, and comedian, who pretends to be a Darcy girl when we all know she would have fallen for Henry Crawford. @kimkalish
Andrea Schwartz (she/her) is a comedy writer who runs the Jane Austen parody account @austen1stdrafts. Her claim to fame is once bumping into Jennifer Ehle at LAX. In her spare time, she plots how to pollute the shades of Pemberley.
5:30 PM UTC – Anatomy of a scene: Catherine and Eleanor (inspired by Northanger Abbey)
“Anatomy of a Scene” is a study of the playwriting process of a new work inspired by Northanger Abbey. Its focus is one of the play’s direct inspirations: chapters 21-22, where Catherine finds the farrier’s bill in a chest.
In this presentation, we start by sharing/reading the scene from the writer’s perspective. The analysis includes: sharing how direct adaptation vs inspired by works and why, themes of class differences, gothic themes as this really sets up Catherine’s fantastic nature. (Spoiler: she’s an alt girl/scene kid in this version). Also I will explain the choosing of Northanger as inspiration in the first place as it’s less popular than, say, Emma.
The play itself focuses on Cath, and is set in the early 2000s in the US. A lover of gothic music and books, she navigates new mysteries when her family drops her off with fashionable East Coast friends for a whole summer.
Presenter:
Lucy Knight is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on theatre. She is returning to playwriting after focusing on intimacy coordination and education. Previous produced works include “Eternal Life”- a retelling of Athena and Medusa, and “Morgause” (SF Olympians Festival), based on Arthurian folklore. With this new work via Northanger Abbey, she hopes audiences will renew a love for fiction as a bridge towards empathy and radical imagination.
6:00 PM UTC – Anxious Mothers & Independent Daughters: Maternal Authority in Jane Austen
Even though mothers occupy a central place in Jane Austen’s novels, their maternal authority often falls flat. Whether examining the anxious matchmaking of Mrs. Bennet or analyzing the passive indifference of Lady Bertram, Austen routinely depicts mothers who are ineffective, misguided or altogether absent from their daughters’ moral and emotional development.
This presentation aims to argue that Austen intentionally juxtaposes anxious mothers with self-reliant daughters in order to explore the limits of a mother’s authority within the societal realities of Regency England. While mothers are tasked with orchestrating their daughters’ futures in an economy that is quite marriage-driven, Austen’s heroines tend to achieve maturity as a result of either mastering their own moral compass or seeking the guidance of surrogate mother figures….as opposed to looking to their biological mothers for assistance.
This presentation will delve into the various maternal figures of Austen’s major works, reflecting on how Austen acknowledges the pressures placed upon mothers, while simultaneously reinventing the marriage plot as a narrative reliant on female moral autonomy. Ultimately, this talk will encourage the audience to consider how Austen reveals the tensions between maternal obligation, societal constraint, and the emergence of female agency.
Presenter:
Sydney Fargis is a Humanities educator who resides in North Carolina. A voracious reader and passionate writer, she has been a scholar of Jane Austen since her undergraduate days at the University of Rochester. Please don’t hesitate to connect with Sydney on Bookstagram: @musingsofthewellread; she goes by she/her, loves unwinding with a good book and her cat, and will forever declare that Jane Austen is her favorite author.
6:30 PM UTC – The rise of the tenant farmer in Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’
Dear Robert Martin, roses are red, violets are blue, it would be a degradation if my friend were to be with you. Love from, Emma Woodhouse.
In my video I’d like to explore Robert Martin’s “rise” throughout the novel and show his similarities between Mr Knightley, the hero. By doing this, it will explain how and why Emma went from contempt towards Mr Martin, to her admission at the end of the novel: “it would be a great pleasure to know Robert Martin.”
Presenter:
Hi, I’m Canab. I was introduced to Jane Austen’s books by watching booktube and fell in love very quickly. I live in London, UK.
7:00 PM UTC – A Battle of Unsung Adaptations
The world is so full of Austen adaptations, that even the most dedicated fans are bound to miss some gems. That’s where this panel comes in. Author Eden Appiah-Kubi has gathered three of TikTok’s most enthusiastic Austenites Eden Appiah-Kubi Rhonda Watts, Kate Shea, and Shana Jackson. Together they’ll share their favorite lesser know Austen Adaptations in a friendly and funny debate.
Presenters:
Rhonda Watts is a writer and content creator who talks regularly about popular culture, media, and literature on her TikTok channel, RhondaToksAboutBooks, and her podcast, Pop DNA.
She is also the author of a (hopefully) soon-to-be-published novel, a cozy fantasy retelling of Sense and Sensibility, which is now on submission with her literary agent.
Rhonda holds an MA in Mass Media Communications and a BA in English Literature. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Rhonda now lives in Greenville, SC, with her partner and a fort she built out of her books.
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Kate Shea (she/her; Tiktok: @kitkatshea) is an avid Austenite based out of D.C. From 2021 to 2023, Kate undertook an entirely self-imposed challenge to watch every Austen adaptation ever. From BBC classics, to web series, to modern spins like Clueless and Fire Island, if it’s even vaguely Austen adjacent, Kate’s seen it. When she’s not consuming massive amounts of costume dramas, Kate also enjoys reading scifi and fantasy, embroidering, and taking her cavapoo, Mr. Darcy, on long walks throughout the District. In her day job, Kate represents tenants at risk of eviction and poor housing conditions as an attorney with Legal Aid DC.
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Shana Elizabeth (she/her) is a first generation Jane Austen enthusiast who resides in New York, by way of Boston (go Patriots!). Shana is an artist who weaves their lived experiences into their art at every juncture; this includes her currently working on her first ever collection of short stories. Outside of her artistic endeavors, Shana has a background in Development, for non, and for-profit sectors. She also enjoys avoiding television shows her friends recommend to her. She’s working on that. You can find her writings at https://substack.com/@shanalizzy.”
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Eden Appiah-Kubi (she/her) is a librarian, DC-area native, and the author of the Austen-inspired novels Her Own Happiness and The Bennet Women. She fell in love of 19th century literature through reading Jane Eyre and Little Women with her mom, and A LOT of Masterpiece Theatre. Eden developed her fiction writing while serving in the Peace Corps and later refined it through writing groups in DC. She lives in Prince George’s County, MD with her husband, hilarious daughter, and elder statesman of an orange tabby, Riker.
You can find her on TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky @EdenAWrites and on Instagram @AuthorEdenAK.
Eden Appiah-Kubi (she/her) is a librarian, DC-area native, and the author of the Austen-inspired novels Her Own Happiness and The Bennet Women. She fell in love of 19th century literature through reading Jane Eyre and Little Women with her mom, and A LOT of Masterpiece Theatre. Eden developed her fiction writing while serving in the Peace Corps and later refined it through writing groups in DC. She lives in Prince George’s County, MD with her husband, hilarious daughter, and elder statesman of an orange tabby, Riker.
Sunday, July 19, 2025 Program Descriptions
10:00 AM UTC – From AO3 to TikTok: Jane Austen, Fanfiction, and the Online Fan Communities That Keep Her Alive
Jane Austen has never truly left the cultural conversation — and today, much of that conversation is happening online. This presentation explores how digital fan communities have become vibrant spaces for Austen’s reinvention: through fanfiction on platforms like AO3 and Wattpad, through memes, fan edits, and video essays on TikTok, Tumblr, and Instagram, and through passionate discussions on Reddit and Discord servers. What do these creative forms tell us about how new generations relate to Austen’s characters, themes, and world? Drawing on fan studies and her experience as co-founder of the first Jane Austen Society in France, Juliette Cousin examines the cultural mechanisms that drive this participatory fandom — the tropes, the humor, the emotion — and reflects on what it means to love Austen in the age of the internet. Both scholarly and accessible, this presentation welcomes every kind of Austen fan into the conversation.
Presenter: Juliette Cousin
[Need Bio]
1:00 PM UTC – Everything Old is New Again: The Rise of Regencycore
Regencycore, also known as royalcore, has been an aesthetic influence on fashion and lifestyle for nearly a decade. While its roots certainly go back much farther, with the launch of the Bridgerton series and the celebration of Jane Austen’s recent 250th birthday, regencycore is more abundant than ever. Puffed and capped sleeves? Check. Delicate ballet slippers? Check. Empire waist influenced dresses and tops? Also check. Rich colors and damask walls? Absolutely.
In “Everything Old is New Again: The Rise of Regencycore,”, we’ll learn what regencycore is, and what it isn’t. The history of regencycore, and how it permeates modern life. We’ll also look at major influences that have stood the test of time that even Jane (and the Bridgertons) would recognize in the 19th C.
Presenter:
Lisa Rabey is a mercenary librarian, writer, researcher, and lecturer. She currently resides in N. Michigan with her partner, whom she sometimes likes, and their persnickety pug, who sometimes likes her. Lisa is a not-quite obsessed Jane Austen fan who also likes heaving bosom books, trashy TV, and working her way through Paul Hollywood’s cookbooks. She currently has “obstinate headstrong girl” tattooed on her right wrist and is collecting copies of “Pride and Prejudice” in different languages. (She has copies in English, Croatian, Slovenian, and Slovakian.) Lisa runs the popular Jane Austen (and Brontes) social media account Excessively Diverting on Bluesky and Instagram. You can find out more about Excessively Diverting at https://excessivelydiverting.net and Lisa at https://lisarabey.com.
Lisa last presented for Virtual Jane Con in 2025 on “Merchandising Jane: The 21st C Consumerism of Jane Austen.“
2:00 PM UTC – Jane Austen, Ruining Lives Since 1811: A review of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
This year, we’ll be reviewing the 2024 French film “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” (Jane Austen a gâché ma vie). The film tells the tale of an struggling writer who gets accepted to a Jane Austen writer’s residency but is haunted by her past and torn between to romances. Is this film simply Austenland à la française? Or will it use the literature of Jane Austen to wreck you in an entirely new way?
Presenter:
Kate Zarrella is a sewist, cat lady, enthusiast of useful skills, and a Jane Austen Afficianado. After years of spinsterhood, she finally met her Capt. Wentworth (at a library no less) and is now living out that happily ever afer while listening to her Persuasion audiobook on repeat. She lives in fearful, yet hopeful, anticipation of the upcoming Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility films.
2:30 PM UTC – How Death is Different: A comparison of funerary, burial, and mourning practices from Regency England to today
This presentation compares funerary, burial, and mourning practices in the Regency era of Jane Austen with those of today. It will explain typical customs and social expectations surrounding death and mourning in the Regency Era, drawing examples from Jane Austen’s writings and contemporary sources, then contrast those observations with what we experience today.
The session will discuss memorial jewelry and mourning fashion from then and now, and how historical expectations of mourning periods inform our reactions to public figures such as the newly widowed Erica Kirk. There will also be an exploration of how COVID restrictions created an unexpected parallel with Regency burial norms.
Presenter:
Lacy Phillips is a brand manager and content creator with 25 years of experience working in publishing, print marketing, and new media. She has partnered with more than 40 nonprofits and mission-driven organizations to help grow engaged communities and amplify work that matters. She currently serves as the Digital and Social Media Coordinator for P.S. Literary Agency.
3:00 PM UTC – The Other Bennet Sister Postmortem Discussion
[TO COME]
Presenter:
Amanda-Rae Prescott (she/her) is a freelance pop culture journalist from New York City, specializing in reviewing, contextualizing, and tracking UK period dramas and UK television for American audiences. She has a Masters in Science from the Columbia University School of Journalism. Advocacy for expanded racial diversity on screen and behind the scenes of period dramas as well as more fan participation from viewers of diverse backgrounds is a key feature of her reporting. Her articles reviewing Bridgerton, Sanditon, and other Austen/Austen adjacent topics have previously appeared on Den Of Geek, GBH Drama Club, BBC History Extra, Fansplaining and several podcasts including . Online she can be found at http://amandaraeprescott.com/ and on BlueSky @amandaraeprescott.bsky.social
[Other presenters TBD]
5:00 PM UTC – Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: Reading the Women that Inspired Austen & the Writers Who Continue Her Legacy
We are shaped by the books we read. The works we choose to spend our time with influence our ideas, our imaginations, and the way we see the world. In Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, Rebecca Romney offers an insight into Austen’s literary life. She explores the female authors who inspired her, while documenting Romney’s journey as a rare bookseller collecting those books Austen cherished. Among these are Frances Burney’s Evelina and Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda, two novels that developed strong female characters who are exploring societal rules while also seeking potential husbands—key themes that are central to Austen’s works. This paper examines these novels, highlighting how Austen took inspiration from both these women to create her beloved books. Additionally, we will create our own “Jane Austen’s Bookshelf” by going through contemporary novels I love which have been inspired by Austen’s legacy.
Presenter:
Tiffany Cruz is a Ph.D. student in the English Department at Northeastern University, she focuses on race in British literature during the long eighteenth and nineteenth century. She also explores race in contemporary historical fiction that takes place in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. She is particularly interested in the constructions of genre and how they shape both classical and modern texts. Tiffany also focuses on Gothic narratives for the way they probe moral and psychological complexity. Her interest in Aristotelian ethics shapes her fascination with how literature represents virtue, morality, and the formation of character under conditions of fear, secrecy, and the uncanny.
IG: tiffanyfranchescacruz
book IG: tiffanyfranchescareads
website: https://tiffanyfranchescacruz.com/
9:00 PM UTC – Everything Nourishes What Is Strong Already
Mr Darcy, far too clever for his own good, thought he could starve away his inconvenient attraction to Elizabeth with “one good sonnet.” When the poem resurfaces over the course of their correspondence before marriage, it leads to a flurry of verses sent back and forth between them.
A JAFF read-aloud of the events before Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage, and of how Austen’s most Wollstonecraftian of fairy tale princesses could ever agree to marry at all.
Presenter:
Tara Clarkson is a writer of poetry, comics, and short fiction. She was so pleased with one of her own JAFF sonnets that she submitted it to the 2024 Kingfisher Poetry Prize without any comment or explanation. It was shortlisted, which was both gratifying and extremely amusing.
10:00 PM UTC – Northanger Snacky: A Gothic/Regency Snack Break
Inspired by Northanger Abbey, this program is going to present some wonderfully Gothic snacks, with a Regency twist. Come for the mystery jellies, stay for the party games.
Presenter:
Bianca Hernandez-Knight (she/her) makes magic with a needle and thread. She has been sewing for local productions like CalShakes, working wardrobe for the Panto at the Presidio Theatre, and working as a costume designer in San Francisco. She’s designed for stage and film, with a focus on vintage and period pieces. Along with design, she’s been a Wardrobe Supervisor for musicals, black box shows, and opera and more!
11:00 PM UTC – Sense & Adaptability: A Sense & Sensibility Deep Dive
Sense & Sensibility was the first novel published by Jane Austen. A story about two sisters, this novel has had several adaptations. However, the two major adaptations known by fans does not fully adapt key parts of the novel. With a new film adaptation coming out in fall 2026, it’s time to take a look at why this book struggles to have an adaptation that encapsulates the scope of the novel.
Starting with a summary of the novel and then looking at the 1995 adaptation from Emma Thompson and the 2008 miniseries written by Andrew Davies, we will look at the similarities and the differences between novel and adaptation. We will also discuss what will hopefully be seen in the new 2026 adaptation. By the end of the video, we will have an answer to why Sense & Sensibility still remains a beloved book worthy of adaptation.
Presenter:
Briana Michelle Meyer is a 34-year-old who spends her days selling books at a bookstore and her nights writing stories. Previously, she spent 6 years as a Native English Teacher in South Korea. Briana has long been a fan of period dramas since the age of 6. When not writing or working, Briana enjoys reading in coffee shops, researching history, and studying the works of Sally Rooney, Nora Ephron, and Greta Gerwig.
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