Experimenting with Jane Austen (Jenni Lewis) (part of doing together 25)

Experimenting with Jane Austen7th and 8th April 2025When we read and study literature, we are often engaged in critiquing social norms and asking powerful questions about social justice and injustice. But sometimes the forms our discussions take fail to shake free of the norms we critique. This workshop, which focuses on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, invited participants to take part in an experiment: can we create a way to do discussion that is as playful, irreverent, and transformative as the text itself?The event was open to anyone interested in literature and talking about books. The session culminated with an evaluation of the difference a playful approach makes to group discussion, a discussion of how we have engaged with each other as well as with Austen's work, and a reflection on what, if anything, participants have taken from the experience.doing together 25doing together is a yearly two-day making and sharing practice symposium at Locksbrook Campus, hosted by the Art Research Centre (Bath School of Art, Film and Media) in collaboration with Bath School of Design and the Centre of Cultural and Creative Industries.doing together is a platform to connect staff, students, and the community through making, collaboration and experimentation.Workshops, delivered by staff and PGR students from across the University, share practice-based research methods and a broad range of approaches to practice. doing together is proposed as a generous space to make/do/share and discuss practice with colleagues from a range of different Schools.Throughout the symposium, facilitators – alongside participants – test out ways of doing together in an effort to make their practice-based research explicit, rather than simply describe it.