Regency Echoes in Contemporary Film

Bao Bui, “Jane Austen and nostalgia: "Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure"

Kristen Miller Zohn, “Regency Revisited: Contemporary Decorative Arts Inspired by Jane Austen’s Era”

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Woman's Athletic Club of Chicago 

626 North Michigan Avenue

The Gala includes a luncheon with your choice of

Greek Chicken, Beef Bourguignon, or Cauliflower Steak

 along with Poached Pear Salad and Crème Brulée.

Coffee and hot or iced tea included.

Tickets are $90 per person

Register online 
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Tickets are limited to 100 seats, please sign up early.

Valet parking is available at The WAC.

Jane Austen and nostalgia: "Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."

The numerous film, television, and stage adaptations of Jane Austen's novels suggest an enduring public fascination with both her literary merits and her observations on social mores.  In the 21st century, Austen’s legions of fans still look to her for guidance and wisdom.  The entertainment and literary businesses certainly have catered to the public’s need to be both entertained and enlightened by Austen two centuries after her death.  This talk examines how the “costume drama” film genre shapes how we approach the historical past. 

Bao Bui is a Visiting Lecturer in the History Dept. at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his doctorate in history from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2016. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled, Mail Intimacy: Gender Roles and Epistolary Privacy during the American Civil War.  His undergraduate degree is in English literature from Pomona College.  He has taught courses in food history, international politics, women and gender history, Jane Austen, and media studies, in addition to survey courses in American and world history.  An avid tango dancer, he has visited communities of Argentine tango dancers throughout the world.

“Regency Revisited: Contemporary Decorative Arts Inspired by Jane Austen’s Era?”

This slide lecture explores how the popularity of Austen’s work has led to a general appreciation of all things Regency, inspiring contemporary artists to meld techniques and forms found in Austen-era arts and design with contemporary design aesthetics. Today’s artists and craftspeople are producing sophisticated Georgian- and Regency-inspired furniture, textiles, ceramics, and portraits that explore the notions of women’s contributions to society, fame and heroism, slavery and colonialism, greed and commercialism, and high and low taste. We will be jumping back and forth across time as we make connections between the past and the present.

Kristen Miller Zohn lives and works in Columbus, Georgia, where she is the Executive Director of the Costume Society of America, an organization dedicated to advancing the global understanding of all aspects of dress and appearance.  She also serves as Curator of Collections and Exhibitions for the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Mississippi, which houses a collection of European and American art, Native American baskets, British Georgian silver, and Japanese woodblock prints.  She is a contributing author for American Art in the Columbus Museum: Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Arts and to The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 21, Art and Architecture, and she has published articles about Jane Austen and the visual arts in Persuasions On-Line and Persuasions.  Her most recent publications are The Currency of Taste: The Gibbons Georgian Silver Collection of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, a 132-page, full-color catalogue, and an article about her exhibition What Lies Beneath: Masonite and American Art of the Twentieth Century in the magazine American Art Review.  Ms. Miller Zohn is a frequent lecturer on portraiture and decorative arts of the nineteenth century. She has presented at six JASNA AGMs. A Life Member of JASNA, she serves as a member of JASNA's national board and was the co-coordinator with Jennifer Swenson for the 2021 AGM in Chicago.

Reminder for registration: We are using a new registration system, you will need to create an account to register