2025 will be a milestone year celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Through this Call for Papers, the JASNA Maryland Region invites submission of proposals for breakout sessions at the 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and applications for the New Voices Breakout Speaker Grant.

The AGM theme: Austen at 250: Austen's Life, Novels, Juvenelia, & Surviving Letters

Date: Oct. 10-12, 2025

Location: Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore MD

Full Conference details: Visit the 2025 AGM website and Call for Papers

Seeking proposals on topics including, but are not limited to:

• Important events in Austen’s life
• Places or relationships
• Real life reimagined in her fiction
• Her writing process and her evolution as a writer
• The importance and expression of particular themes
• Publication goals and experiences
• Psychological aspects
• Change or consistency
• The nature of genius and evidence of it in Austen’s work

This multifaceted and unique celebration will offer opportunities to explore Austen’s enduring genius. A successful proposal will convey the speaker's ability to engage and educate conference audiences in a 30- to 40-minute presentation.

Submission Instructions

For the 2025 AGM, breakout proposals will be collected via a Google Form. Note: JASNA uses the term "breakout" to mean a 20-minute presentation.

Full Submission Guidelines: https://jasna.org/agms/baltimore2025/call-for-papers.php

Submit your Breakout Session Proposal Form.

The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2024. Selections will be announced in early 2025.

See the conference website for information if you wish to apply for a New Voices Breakout Speaker Grant.