When Amy Bass '06 took Professor Kara Doyle's Senior Seminar on Jane Austen, she knew she had found a topic for her senior thesis.
“I read Emma one summer on my own, but taking the Austen seminar with Professor Doyle greatly influenced my decision to write my senior thesis on Austen” says Bass. “My Jane Austen thesis was the most worthwhile experience of my undergraduate career.”
The thesis has also helped Bass get her own work published. The English major from Needham, Mass., recently won first prize in the undergraduate division of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Essay Contest for a selection of her senior honors thesis titled, “'You Have Shown Yourself Very, Very Different': Mansfield Park's Radically Reserved Heroine.”
The prize includes free membership to JASNA and an all-expenses paid trip to Loew's Canyon Resort in Tucson, Ariz., for the group's annual meeting in October.
“I'm looking forward to meeting one of the speakers at the meeting,” says Bass. “Claudia Johnson was one of the main Austen critics I cited in my senior thesis.”
Founded in 1979, JASNA has approximately 3,000 members. Most are professional scholars or well-read amateurs from across the U.S. and Canada, though Janeites are represented from 13 other countries, stretching from Japan to the Netherlands.
This was the 15th year for the essay contest, which attracted 75 entries. Judges of the contest include professors and Austen experts. Bass was encouraged to apply by Annette LeClair, associate librarian and head of technical services at Union. LeClair is a member of JASNA and will be attending the conference in October.
Associate Professor of English Kara Doyle served as an advisor on the essay.
“Professor Doyle has a knack for asking the tough questions. She encouraged me to look deeper into the text, the criticism and my own ideas of Austen,” says Bass.
The essay has been published online and can be viewed from JASNA's website, www.jasna.org.
Bass was also the recipient of the College's William F. Allen (1895) Essay Prize this year for her full-length thesis, which offered a critical reassessment of women's roles in the novels of Jane Austen. Her advisor was Professor Bernhard H. Kuhn, director of the honors English thesis. The prize is awarded annually to a senior in any department for a non-fiction essay.
Bass was a writing tutor for three years in the College's Writing Center.
She will soon head to University College London to pursue a graduate degree in English. She plans to become an English professor.