Events

February 27, 2019: “Beautiful Cassy: Jane Austen’s Niece in Nova Scotia,” a lecture for the Canadian Federation of University Women, Halifax, NS.

June 18, 2018: L.M. Montgomery’s Halifax: A Literary Soirée in support of Project Bookmark Canada, 7pm at the Women’s Council House, 989 Young Avenue, Halifax, NS.

April 9, 2018: A reading from Budge Wilson’s novel Before Green Gables at “Nova Reads with Budge Wilson,” 7pm at The Watch That Ends the Night, 15 King’s Wharf Place, Dartmouth, NS.

March 24, 2018: “Celebrating Jane Austen After 200 Years,” a lecture for Saint Mary’s University Continuing Education/Elder Learners, Halifax, NS.

Past events:

My talk at the JASNA 2012 AGM

Photo by Lisa Brown

In addition to speaking about Jane Austen and Edith Wharton at many Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) AGMs and Regional meetings, at academic conferences, at the Rothermere American Institute (University of Oxford), and at the Humanities Center at Harvard, I’ve given talks and led discussions for several reading groups, including the Mothers’ Discussion Club (founded in 1899) in Cambridge, MA; the Church of Our Saviour Adult Education Group in Brookline, MA; the University of King’s College Chaplaincy Seminar Series; and the Dalhousie-King’s Reading Group in Halifax, NS.

In 2015 I spoke on “Austen and Ambition” in Philadelphia at a meeting of the JASNA Eastern Pennsylvania Region, and I’ve continued to explore this topic in lectures on Emma (at the 2016 JASNA AGM), Persuasion (at the 2017 Jane Austen Society, UK conference in Halifax, NS), and Pride and Prejudice (at a 2018 lecture for Saint Mary’s University Continuing Education/Elder Learners). Is ambition a vice or a virtue? What’s the connection between ambition and happiness—or is there one?

At the Jane Austen Society conference in Halifax, NS in 2017, Sheila Johnson Kindred and I gave a joint lecture on “Charles and Francis Austen: Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers on the Royal Navy’s North American Station.” We created a walking tour that highlights places the Austen brothers and their families saw or visited during their time in Halifax.