Wednesday 11th February 2026

Venue: Online

6-7.30pm GMT

Reading Chawton House Library: New Research in Women’s Writing

This digital event, put on by BARS (British Association of Romantic Studies) celebrates and shares the work of six PhD and early-career researchers, all of whom undertook Chawton House Fellowships in 2025, Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary year. Spanning the long eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, the Fellows’ research studies a range of women’s literature, politics, and history.

The Fellows will discuss their experiences working in the Chawton House Library, alongside their research findings. These range from the Scottish Gothic to conduct literature and the Brontës, female political activism to sexual precarity at the seaside in Austen’s novels, via Romantic-period publishing practices, such as the subscription list and prolific publishers like the Minerva Press. They will also share their authentic Regency experiences living in Chawton House itself, famed for its associations with the Austen family and prime location in Chawton village, close to Austen’s cottage where she wrote and revised her six novels. The Fellows will be joined by Dr Kim Simpson who will share the house’s history and details of Chawton House’s legacy as a research centre for women’s writing.

We anticipate lively conversation and welcome both general and academic audiences; please come along all of you who are interested in Romanticism, women’s literature, Jane Austen and historic houses!

Attendance is free but please register here to receive joining details: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ekjSjojaQPC1mBhlhflsRQ

Speakers: Emma Butler, Bethan Elliott, Rebecca Hamilton, Ellis Naylor, Amy Wilcockson, Amory Zhao, Kim Simpson