Janine Barchas
Professor — Ph.D., 1995, University of Chicago

Contact
- E-mail: barchas@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-471-8379
- Office: CAL 203
- Campus Mail Code: B5000
Interests
Eighteenth-century literature and culture; digital humanities; the British novel; book history; textual studies; and Jane Austen.
Biography
Born in the Netherlands, Janine Barchas (Stanford B.A. and Chicago Ph.D.) joined the University of Texas at Austin in 2002, after teaching at the University of Auckland in New Zealand for five years.
Professor Barchas combines book history with literary criticism in both her research and teaching. Her work exhibits a material turn. She has twice been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and has received the Alpha of Texas Award for Distinction in Teaching from the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Her first book, Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel (Cambridge UP, 2003), won the SHARP prize for best work in the field of book history. This was followed by Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity (Johns Hopkins UP, 2012). In addition, Barchas has published academic articles in journals such as ELH, Review of English Studies, Eighteenth-Century Life, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Persuasions, and Modern Philology. She also writes pieces for the popular press, including essays in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Review of Books.
Most recently, Professor Barchas published The Lost Books of Jane Austen (Johns Hopkins University Press, October 2019). It is an investigation into the early reception history of Jane Austen through the lens of her cheapest, least authoritative, and most neglected reprintings. Years of book hunting revealed unknown editions of Austen's novels that never made it into academic libraries or official bibliographical records due to their intolerable cheapness. Starting with shilling versions sold at Victorian train stations and book stalls during the 1840s, Barchas democratizes Austen's reception with new data about versions targeted to working-class readers. She describes her project as "hard-core bibliography meets the Antiques Roadshow."
Research for this latest book led to an invitation to curate the “Austen in Austin” exhibition currently on view in the Stories to Tell Galleries of the Harry Ransom Center (through 5 Jan 2020). This exhibition gathers together Austen copies owned by the Ransom Center to ask how the holding of a single author might reveal the prides and prejudices of book collecting. Labels explain how the Ransom Center acquired its first editions, its unique family and association copies, and its other Janeite items. “Austen in Austin” extends, as it were, the argument made in Lost Books by showing how certain categories of copies found a safe haven at a scholarly library.
She is also the creator behind “What Jane Saw.” This website (www.whatjanesaw.org) offers digital reconstructions of two museum blockbusters attended by Jane Austen: the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in 1796 and the Sir Joshua Reynolds retrospective in 1813. The initial phase of “What Jane Saw” launched on 24 May 2013, or 200 years to the day that the Austens attended the Reynolds show. The second phase of the website launched in 2015, on 16 December, Austen's birthday. If you would like to “hear” Professor Barchas talk about this project, the Folger Shakespeare Library hosts a 30-min interview with her in the form of a podcast called Recreating the Boydell Gallery.
In 2016, Barchas co-curated an exhibition entitled "Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity" at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. Co-curated with Kristina Straub (Carnegie Mellon Univ), this museum exhibition tracked the parallel afterlives of arguably the two most popular authors in the English language, asking how exactly they became celebrated as literary superheroes. You can "see" Barchas and Straub talk about "Will & Jane" and catch a glimpse of their exhibition in a 5-min short on YouTube made by the department. The New York Times praised their exhibition for mixing "deep scholarship with serious whimsy."
SELECTED MEDIA APPEARANCES
- “The Prides and Prejudices of Book Collecting,” Los Angeles Review of Books (31 Oct 2019)
- “Why Are Some Books Collected and Others Merely Read?” Ransom Center Magazine (26 Sept. 2019)
- Interview: “Janine Barchas: Jane Austen for the People,” with Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand (17 August 2019)
- “Marie Kondo’s Contributions to the Reception History of Jane Austen,” Los Angeles Review of Books (9 April 2019)
- Op-Ed for Washington Post: “Jane Austen is a Fraud” (18 July 2017)
- Op-Ed for Washington Post, “Will & Jane: making literary celebrity work for the humanities,” co-authored with Kristina Straub (27 Oct 2016)
- Youtube video of Will & Jane exhibition (24 Aug 2016)
- New York Times coverage of curated “Will & Jane” exhibition (4 Aug. 2016)
- Interview: “Recreating the Boydell Gallery,” with Barbara Bogaev for Folger Shakespeare Library (12 July 2016)
- Youtube promo of collaboration with VisLab at Texas Advanced Computing Center (18 Dec 2015)
- New York Times story on digital reconstruction of Boydell Shakespeare Gallery (17 Dec 2015)
- New York Times feature on the launch of What Jane Saw (25 May 2013)
- “This is Himmler’s Copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf,” com (3 June 2015)
- Backpager essay in New York Times Book Review (17 Feb 2013)
Courses
E 327 • British Novel In 18th Century
35485 • Spring 2019
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM PAR 105
GCWr
E 384L • Scholarly Publication
35785 • Spring 2019
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM CAL 323
UGS 303 • Jane Austen On Page And Screen
62865-62905 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.306
ID
E 350M • Early Celebrity Culture
35605 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM CAL 419
IIWr
(also listed as LAH 350)
UGS 303 • Jane Austen On Page And Screen
62840-62865 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM UTC 3.112
ID
E 327 • British Novel In 18th Century
35357 • Spring 2017
Meets MW 11:30AM-1:00PM CAL 221
GCWr
E 349S • Jane Austen
35445 • Spring 2017
Meets MW 8:30AM-10:00AM PAR 306
UGS 303 • Jane Austen On Page And Screen
62830-62870 • Fall 2016
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.306
ID
E 349S • Jane Austen
34600 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM PAR 105
E 350R • The Paperback
34645 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 204
IIWr
UGS 303 • Jane Austen On Page And Screen
62185-62225 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.306
ID
E 349S • Jane Austen
34780 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM PAR 105
E 350R • The Paperback
34810 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 204
Wr
E 327 • British Novel In 18th Century
35720 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 206
GCWr
E S349S • Jane Austen-Gbr
83410 • Summer 2014
E 349S • Jane Austen
35845 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 206
E 392M • Jane Austen
36155 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM CAL 221
E 327 • English Novel In 18th Century
35390 • Spring 2013
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM PAR 204
GCWr
E 350R • The Paperback
35505 • Fall 2012
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.202
Wr
(also listed as LAH 350)
E 314L • Reading Lit In Context-Hon
34575 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM MEZ 2.202
Wr
C1
T C 302 • Jane Austen On Page And Screen
42840 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM CRD 007A
Wr
E 327 • English Novel In 18th Century
35475 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM PAR 208
GCWr
E 314L • Lit Contests/-Texts-Pl I Hon
33850 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM MEZ 2.202
Wr
C1
E 384K • Graphic Design & Literary Text
34985 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM HRC 2.212
E S379M • Jane Austen On Location-Eng
83320 • Summer 2010
E 327 • English Novel In 18th Cen-W
34750 • Spring 2010
Meets TTH 8:00AM-9:30AM PAR 306
C2
E 314L • Lit Contest/-Text-Pl I Hon-W
34280 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 2.202
C1
Selected Publications
Books & Editions
The Lost Books of Jane Austen (Johns Hopkins University Press, Oct. 2019).
Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity (Johns Hopkins University Press 2012).
Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Prize: SHARP Book History Prize.
The Annotations in Lady Bradshaigh’s Copy of Clarissa, with the editorial collaboration of Gordon Fulton, ELS Monograph Series, No. 76 (Victoria, 1998).
Volume 1 (1700-1735) of Eighteenth-Century British Erotica Set II, 5 vols., gen. eds. Alexander Pettit and Patrick Spedding (Pickering & Chatto, 2004).
Translation: A Boyhood Under Nazi Occupation: the Personal Story of Jan Duijvestein, translated from Dutch and introduced by his daughter Janine Barchas (published by Edward Everett Root, Brighton, UK). 140 pgs. In production for publication in March 2020.
Selected Articles & Chapters
“Speculations on Spectacles: Jane Austen’s Eyeglasses, Mrs. Bates’s Spectacles, and John Saunders in Emma,” co-authored with Elizabeth Picherit, Modern Philology 115.1 (Aug 2017): 131-143. Online: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/692020
“Why K. M. Metcalfe (Mrs. Chapman) is ‘really the originator in the editing of Jane Austen,’” Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 68, No. 285: 583-611. Online: https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgw149
“Curating Will & Jane,” co-authored with Kristina Straub, Eighteenth-Century Life 40.2 (April 2016): 1-35.
“Setting and Community,” in The Cambridge Companion to Emma, ed. Peter Sabor (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, August 2015), 120-134.
“Sense, Sensibility, and Soap: An Unexpected Case Study for Digital Resources in Book History,” Book History 16 (2013): 185-214.
“A Big Name: Jane Austen and the Wentworths,” in Wentworth Castle and Georgian Political Gardening, ed. Patrick Eyres (Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust, Yorkshire, Aug. 2012), 161-175.
“The Real Bluebeard of Bath: A Historical Model for Northanger Abbey,” Persuasions 32 (2010): 115-134.
“Hell-Fire Jane: Austen and the Dashwoods of West Wycombe,” Eighteenth-Century Life 33.3 (Fall 2009): 1-36. Reprinted as “Dashwood Celebrity” in Sensibilities (Feb 2011), journal of the Jane Austen Society of Australia.
“Mapping Northanger Abbey: Or, Why Austen’s Bath of 1803 Resembles Joyce’s Dublin of 1904,” Review of English Studies, New Series, 60.245 (June 2009): 431-59. Distinction: RES “Editor’s Choice”
“Very Austen: Accounting for the Language of Emma,” Nineteenth-Century Literature 62.3 (Dec 2007): 303-338.
Born-Digital Project
“What Jane Saw” (www.whatjanesaw.org) offers a room-by-room reconstruction of two Georgian blockbusters witnessed by Jane Austen: the retrospective of Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1813 (launched on 24 May 2013) and Boydell’s famous Shakespeare Gallery as it looked in 1796 (added on 16 Dec 2015). I am the Principal Investigator, supported by UT’s Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services (LAITS). For sample press coverage, see New York Times, “Seeing Art Through Austen’s Eyes,” 25 May 2013, C1, and NYT “A 1796 Shakespeare Exhibition Has Become Virtual Reality,” 17 Dec 2016, C3.
Recent Exhibitions
“Austen in Austin” in the Stories to Tell Gallery of the Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX (1 Sept. 2019 – 5 Jan. 2020). Can the holdings of a single author, from precious first to shilling editions, reveal the prides and prejudices of book collecting?
“Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity” at Folger Shakespeare Library (6 Aug–6 Nov 2016). Co-curated with Kristina Straub.
Essays in Popular Press
“‘We’ll buy you a harpoon Lydia’: How Arthur Miller adapted Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,” Los Angeles Review of Books(28 Nov 2019) https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/well-buy-harpoon-lydia-arthur-miller-adapted-jane-austens-pride-prejudice/
“The Prides and Prejudices of Book Collecting,” Los Angeles Review of Books (31 October 2019). http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/prides-prejudices-book-collecting/
"Marie Kondo's Contributions to the Reception History of Jane Austen," Los Angeles Review of Books (9 April 2019).
“Jane Austen is a Fraud,” Washington Post (18 July 2017).
“Will & Jane: making literary celebrity work for the humanities,” co-authored with Kristina Straub, Washington Post (27 Oct 2016).
“This is Himmler’s Copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf: how the book with an evil past made its way to Texas,” TIME.com (3 June 2015)
“The 200-Year Jane Austen Book Club: two centuries of cover designs say a lot about the cultural reach of Pride and Prejudice,” New York Times Book Review (17 Feb 2013), backpager essay, 27.
Selected Honors
- American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellowships (2007-08 and 2019-20)
- Yale's Lewis Walpole Library fellowship (1 month, 2019-20)
- Humanities Research Award, University of Texas ($15K over 3 yrs; 2010-2013 and 2016-19)
- Alpha of Texas Award for Distinction in Teaching, from Phi Beta Kappa Society of University of Texas (May 2005)
- Katherine Pantzer Fellowship in the British Book Trades, Bibliographical Society of America (March 2005)
- Prize for "Best Book of 2003" from Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP), awarded for Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel
- Newberry Library/ASECS Short-Term Fellowship (Jan-March 1997)
- Bibliographical Society of America fellowship (1996)
Recent Talks and Lectures
Plenary/Keynote
“What’s Next for Jane Austen?” co-presented with Devoney Looser, Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Southwest Region, Los Angeles. 7 Dec. 2019.
“The Lost Copies of Northanger Abbey,” North American Scholar Plenary, at annual general meeting of JASNA, Williamsburg, VA. 5 Oct. 2019.
“The Lost Books of Austen Studies,” English-Language Plenary, Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vancouver. 17 October 2015.
“What Jane Saw in 1796 and 1813,” annual gala of Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA)’s Chicago Region, Chicago. 2 May 2015.
“Naming Names in Pride and Prejudice,” North American Scholar Lecture, at AGM of JASNA, Minneapolis. 28 September 2013.
Invited/Featured Speaker
“Some Lost Books of Jane Austen,” Centre for the Book, Dunedin, New Zealand. 21 Aug 2019.
“Jane Austen, Master Paintings, and Lost Books,” Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand. 18 Aug 2019.
“Austen on the Cheap,” Jane Austen’s House Museum, Chawton, UK. Alton Regency Week event. 29 June 2019.
“Jane Austen in the Bookshop, Train Station, and Schoolroom,” Waterstone’s Bookstore, Amsterdam. 25 July 2017.
“Deconstructing Jane Austen,” panel member at the Austin Film Festival & Screenwriters Conference. 14 Oct 2016. On Story podcast of session: https://player.fm/series/austin-film-festivals-on-story-podcast/on-story-episode-1706-deconstructing-jane-austen
“Jane Austen’s Shakespeare,” Compton Verney Art Gallery, Warwickshire. 20 May 2016.
“Digitizing the Ephemeral: Shakespeare, Austen and the Visualization of Museum Exhibitions," Center for Arts in Society, Carnegie Mellon University. 1 Oct 2015.
“Will & Jane, a preview talk” co-presented with Kristina Straub, at “Actresses as Authors Conference,” Chawton House Library. 10 July 2015.
“Did Jane Austen Really Look for Mrs. Darcy at a Museum Exhibition?” A. K. Smith Visiting Scholar Lecture, Trinity College, Hartford, CT. 9 April 2015.
Boards
President, Executive Board of North American Friends of Chawton House Library (member since 2015, Pres since 2018)
Gottschalk Book Prize Committee, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (jury member 2018-19; chair 2019-20)
Jury member De Long Prize, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (2014-2018)
Editorial Board of The Eighteenth-Century Novel, AMS Press (2003-2019; journal folded 2019)
Advisory Board of Eighteenth-Century Studies (term 1 July 2011- 30 June 2014)