Podcast

Jane Austen and the Future of the Humanities

Podcast Episodes

Austen silhouete

Jane Austen Silhouette, Unknown Artist (c. 1800-1815). Likely Silhouette of Austen. Displayed by permission of National Portrait Gallery.

Starting in 2025, the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth, I will be releasing podcast episodes highlighting how Austen’s work helps us rethink the future of the humanities.

I leverage the enduring popularity and diverse, unthreatening appeal of Jane Austen to engage in a new public conversation about the work and efficacy of the humanities. My project relies upon research from the writings of Austen as well as interviews with 20-25 Anglophone critics and artists to delineate six impactful lessons of the humanities: (1) Northanger Abbey shows us that knowledge is a process that involves ignorance, (2) Sense and Sensibility shows us that relationships are messy, (3) Pride and Prejudice shows us that change affects everyone, (4) Mansfield Park shows us that resiliency is not a one-off activity, (5) Emma shows us that living in community is hard, and (6) Persuasion shows us that there is no script for happiness. This structure provides the basic organization for multiple modes of dissemination that result from my research, beginning with a public podcast, the first episode of which will go live in January 2025 to coincide with the beginning of the global celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth.