Jane Austen Day

Saturday 16 February 2008 : 10.30 am to 3.30 pm

Venue

Library Theatre, Birmingham Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham

Fee

£14 (includes tea, coffee, and soft drinks with biscuits, but not lunch). Meals can be purchased in outlets near the Library Theatre.

Speakers

Julie Shorland (chair), Bill Hutchings, Bridget Pugh and Ruth Watts.

This year's Jane Austen Study Day focuses on the themes of childhood and morality. Jane Austen's morality is usually described as conventional, but Bridget Pugh will suggest something else. Bill Hutchings examines an example of Austen's juvenilia, Love and Freindship (sic). Ruth Watts will uncover messages from a range of publications especially written for children when Jane Austen was alive.

Timetable

10.30 am

Tea/Coffee

11.00 am

Introduction by Julie Shorland

11.05 am

A new view of Jane Austen's morality : Bridget Pugh

12.05 pm

Writing for children in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries : Professor Ruth Watts

  1.05 pm

Lunch (see above)

  2.30 pm

Love and Freindship (sic) - the precocious maturity of the fourteen-year-old Jane Austen : Dr Bill Hutchings

  3.30 pm

Finish

Biographies

Bill Hutchings is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Director, Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning at the University of Manchester. He is a specialist in eighteenth-century literature, and he has edited Emma as an e-book for cultural resources.

Bridget Pugh has taught for the extra-mural departments of Birmingham, Hull, Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham Universities, and recently at the University of Duluth, Minnesota, USA.

Julie Shorland is a member of the Jane Austen Society and chair of the Jane Austen Study Day Schools, which are organised by the University of Birmingham with the Jane Austen Society.

Professor Ruth Watts is Professor of the History of Education at the University of Birmingham. Her publications include Gender, Power and the Unitarians in England, 1760-1860 and Women in Science..

How to Enrol

Closing date for applications is 10 days before the Study Day. It may be possible to accept late bookings, but please telephone Sandra Ilott beforehand on 0121 414 3347 to check availability of places. Select the following link to display an Application Form.