āI love introducing new readers to the great English novels and hearing their responses and interpretations. I teach through discussion ā collaborative analysis ā which makes the most of the varied perspectives that °Ēøē³Ō¹Ļ students bring.ā
Juliette Wells
ProfessorLiterary Studies
Juliette Wells, Professor of Literary Studies, is a scholar, teacher, and writer who is passionately committed to helping readers of all backgrounds connect with literature, and who brings her groundbreaking research on Jane Austen to audiences around the world. In summer 2025, The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City will celebrate the year of Austenās 250th birthday with an exhibition guest co-curated by Dr. Wells. āA Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250ā will illuminate Austenās authorship and her American reception by presenting manuscripts from the Morgan in the context of major loans from institutions including Jane Austenās House in Chawton, England. The show will celebrate, too, the lifeās work of the distinguished Austen collector Alberta H. Burke, who made landmark bequests to °Ēøē³Ō¹Ļ, her alma mater, and the Morgan. āA Lively Mindā takes inspiration from Dr. Wellsās trio of books on Austenās readers and fans, most recently A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the Worldās Greatest Novelist (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). A New Jane Austen centers on visionary writers and collectors who, from the 1880s to the 1980s, advocated for Austenās literary significance, broadened her readership, and preserved artifacts vital to her legacy. Reading Austen in America (2017) offers a vivid account of how an appreciative audience for Austenās novels originated and developed in America, and how American readers contributed to the rise of Austenās international fame. Everybody's Jane: Austen in the Popular Imagination (2011) explores the importance of Austen to readers and fans today. All these books highlight °Ēøē³Ō¹Ļās world-renowned Jane Austen collection and its creator, alumna Alberta H. Burke. 2025 will see the publication of Dr. Wellsās new reader-friendly edition of Austenās novel Mansfield Park, which joins her 200th-anniversary editions of Persuasion (2017) and Emma (2015). Dr. Wellsās more than thirty-five articles and book chapters include examinations of Austenās novels and adaptations, as well as essays on Austen pedagogy. An acclaimed speaker to popular and scholarly audiences, she was a guest on series and regularly gives lectures to Austen societies and other reading groups.
Research, Scholarship, Creative Work in Progress
āāHe has great pleasure in seeing the performances of other peopleā: Austenās Men and the Arts,ā in The Edinburgh Companion to Jane Austen and the Arts (University of Edinburgh, 2024)
A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the Worldās Greatest Novelist (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023)
āāHereās harmony!ā: Music and Gender in Kirke Mechemās Pride and Prejudice (2019) and Jonathan Doveās Mansfield Park (2011),ā in Women and Music in the Age of Austen (Bucknell University Press, 2023)
āā Persuasions On-Line 44.1 (2023)
āAfterword: Sex, Romance, and Representation in Uzma Jalaluddinās Ayesha at Last,ā in Jane Austen, Sex, and Romance: Engaging with Desire in the Novels and Beyond (University of Rochester Press, 2022)
āAusten in Public,ā in Teaching Text Technologies and Critical Bibliography Among the Disciplines: Objects of Study (Routledge, forthcoming 2025
Publications
ā,ā in The Routledge Companion to Jane Austen (Routledge, 2021)
ā,ā Persuasions On-Line 42:1 (winter 2021)
ā,ā Persuasions On-Line 41:2 (summer 2021), special issue, āBeyond the Bit of Ivory: Jane Austen and Diversityā
āIntimate Portraiture and the Accomplished Woman Artist in Emma,ā in Art and Artifact in Austen (University of Delaware Press, 2020)
āāDear Aunt Janeā: Agatha Christieās Miss Marple and Jane Austen,ā in After Austen: Reinventions, Rewritings, Revisitings (Palgrave, 2018)
External Awards, Honors, Grants
Jane Austen Society of North America Traveling Lecturer, Eastern Region: 2019ā2022
Conference Papers & Panel Participation
āāThe first ever held in honor of the great novelistā: The 1951 Frostburg āJane Austen Festival,āā panel on āAccess and Accessibility: Jane Austen in Library, Exhibition, and Archive Spaces,ā Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing, Reading, UK: July 2024
āRecognizing Oscar Fay Adams as Austenās First Critical Editor and Biographer,ā British Association for Romantic Studies, Glasgow: July 2024
Participant, roundtable on āReading Communities / Communities of Reading,ā American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Toronto: April 2024
āPride and Prejudice through American Eyes,ā Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Annual General Meeting (AGM), Denver: Nov. 2023
Invited Talks
āA New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the Worldās Greatest Novelist,ā lecture in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the museum, Jane Austenās House, Chawton, England: July 2024
āAn Early Reader of Austen in North America: Christian, Countess of Dalhousie,ā Jane Austen Society (UK) Scottish Branch, Carnegie Library, Dunfermline, Scotland: July 2024
āNurturing a Strong Self in Sense and Sensibility,ā Jane Austen Day at Manor Mill, Monkton, MD: May 2024
āSetting Boundaries and Self-Care in Persuasion,ā Jane Austen Day at Manor Mill, Monkton, MD: June 2023
āA New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the Worldās Greatest Novelist,ā Lorraine Hanaway Memorial Lecture, JASNA ā Eastern PA region, Free Library of Philadelphia: Sept. 2022
ā,ā JASNA ā Southwest region (virtual): Jan. 2022
ā,ā keynote, āJane Austen in the Pan Pacificā symposium (virtual): Nov. 2021
Academic or Professional Associations
Modern Language Association
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
British Association for Romantic Studies
Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
Jane Austen Society of North America
Jane Austen Society (UK)
Other Professional or Scholarly Activity
Instructor, āDavid Copperfield through 21st Century Eyes,ā virtual course, Rosenbach Library, Philadelphia: MayāJune, 2024
Instructor, āReading Austenās Emma with Juliette Wells,ā virtual course, Rosenbach Library, Philadelphia: AprilāMay, 2023
Member, editorial board, Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal: 2011āpresent
Member, Jane Austen Society of North America Archives & History Committee: 2019āpresent