DEVONEY LOOSER (pronounced DEV-oh-nee LOE-sir) is the author of The Making of Jane Austen, a Publishers Weekly Best Summer Book (Nonfiction). She is Professor of English at Arizona State University and author or editor of six other books on literature by women. Her recent writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, Salon, The TLS, and Entertainment Weekly, and she's had the pleasure of talking about Austen on CNN. (Twice!) She was named a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow and an NEH Public Scholar in support of her next book project, a biography of the once-celebrated, now-forgotten sister novelists, Jane and Anna Maria Porter.
Looser, a Minnesota native, traded in her ice skates for roller skates in middle age and has played roller derby under the name Stone Cold Jane Austen. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband, professor and literary scholar George Justice, and their tween-teen sons. She's on Facebook and Twitter @devoneyloooser & @Making_Jane. She posts patterened-legging selfies and super-serious Janeite content on Instagram at @devoneylooser & @makingjaneausten.
Looser, a Minnesota native, traded in her ice skates for roller skates in middle age and has played roller derby under the name Stone Cold Jane Austen. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband, professor and literary scholar George Justice, and their tween-teen sons. She's on Facebook and Twitter @devoneyloooser & @Making_Jane. She posts patterened-legging selfies and super-serious Janeite content on Instagram at @devoneylooser & @makingjaneausten.
AUTHOR
Looser is the author of three books: The Making of Jane Austen (2017), Women and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750-1850 (2008), and British Women Writers and the Writing of History, 1670-1820 (2000; 2005), all published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Looser is the author of three books: The Making of Jane Austen (2017), Women and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750-1850 (2008), and British Women Writers and the Writing of History, 1670-1820 (2000; 2005), all published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
EDITOR
Looser's new Deluxe Classics edition of Sense and Sensibility will be published by Penguin Random House in October 2018. She has edited The Cambridge Companion to Women's Writing in the Romantic Period (Cambridge UP, 2015), Jane Austen and Discourses of Feminism (Palgrave Macmillan, 1995) and co-edited Generations: Academic Feminists in Dialogue (U of Minnesota P, 1997). She recently co-edited the first modern edition of Jane West's A Gossip's Story (2015) for Valancourt Books. From 2004-2013, she served as co-editor of the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, published quarterly by the University of Pennsylvania Press. She is on the advisory boards of a dozen journals, including SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900.
Looser's new Deluxe Classics edition of Sense and Sensibility will be published by Penguin Random House in October 2018. She has edited The Cambridge Companion to Women's Writing in the Romantic Period (Cambridge UP, 2015), Jane Austen and Discourses of Feminism (Palgrave Macmillan, 1995) and co-edited Generations: Academic Feminists in Dialogue (U of Minnesota P, 1997). She recently co-edited the first modern edition of Jane West's A Gossip's Story (2015) for Valancourt Books. From 2004-2013, she served as co-editor of the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, published quarterly by the University of Pennsylvania Press. She is on the advisory boards of a dozen journals, including SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900.
POPULAR MEDIA
Looser has published essays the New York Times, The Atlantic, the TLS (Times Literary Supplement), Entertainment Weekly, Salon, Slate, The Independent, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She has been interviewed by CNN and ABC Radio.
She has been a quoted authority for news stories on Jane Austen in the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and Maclean's. She and her husband were featured subjects in Deborah Yaffe's Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom (2013). Looser scored her own square on the New York Times's "Janeiac Board Game" (9 August 2013).
Looser has published essays the New York Times, The Atlantic, the TLS (Times Literary Supplement), Entertainment Weekly, Salon, Slate, The Independent, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She has been interviewed by CNN and ABC Radio.
She has been a quoted authority for news stories on Jane Austen in the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and Maclean's. She and her husband were featured subjects in Deborah Yaffe's Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom (2013). Looser scored her own square on the New York Times's "Janeiac Board Game" (9 August 2013).
ROLLER DERBY
Outside of the classroom, Looser has played roller derby as Stone Cold Jane Austen. (See "Derby" in the site menu.) She wrote about her experiences in the first-ever collegiate roller derby bout in Slate. Believe it or not, she starred as herself in the never-released, low-budget Jane Austen roller derby vampire movie, Vampyras. Poet Cornelius Eady wrote her alter ego a kick-ass theme song, "Stone Cold Jane."
Outside of the classroom, Looser has played roller derby as Stone Cold Jane Austen. (See "Derby" in the site menu.) She wrote about her experiences in the first-ever collegiate roller derby bout in Slate. Believe it or not, she starred as herself in the never-released, low-budget Jane Austen roller derby vampire movie, Vampyras. Poet Cornelius Eady wrote her alter ego a kick-ass theme song, "Stone Cold Jane."
TEACHER
Looser is an award-winning teacher who has held posts at Indiana State University, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Louisiana State University, and the University of Missouri, before joining the faculty at Arizona State University in 2013. In 2016, she received the Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities Award in College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. She regularly teaches Jane Austen to undergrads and graduate students, in-person and online. She co-edited the Romantic Circles Pedagogy Commons special issue on "Teaching Jane Austen" (2015).
Looser is an award-winning teacher who has held posts at Indiana State University, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Louisiana State University, and the University of Missouri, before joining the faculty at Arizona State University in 2013. In 2016, she received the Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities Award in College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. She regularly teaches Jane Austen to undergrads and graduate students, in-person and online. She co-edited the Romantic Circles Pedagogy Commons special issue on "Teaching Jane Austen" (2015).
PUBLIC SPEAKER
Devoney has lectured widely, giving keynote lectures at Cambridge University's Pride and Prejudice at 200 conference, the British Association for Romantic Studies, and at the British Women Writers Conference. She has given invited talks at the National Portrait Gallery (London), the Sorbonne (Université de Paris III), the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, and Columbia University. At the 2017 meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America's Annual General Meeting in Huntington Beach, CA, commemorating the bicentenary of Austen's death, Looser was a plenary speaker.
Devoney has lectured widely, giving keynote lectures at Cambridge University's Pride and Prejudice at 200 conference, the British Association for Romantic Studies, and at the British Women Writers Conference. She has given invited talks at the National Portrait Gallery (London), the Sorbonne (Université de Paris III), the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, and Columbia University. At the 2017 meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America's Annual General Meeting in Huntington Beach, CA, commemorating the bicentenary of Austen's death, Looser was a plenary speaker.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
In 2018, Looser was named a Guggenheim Fellow in English literature, supporting her project on the sister novelists, Jane and Anna Maria Porter. Looser has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, the American Philosophical Society, the Huntington Library, the Newberry Library, and the New York Public Library, among others. In 2012, she led a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers at the University of Missouri on “Jane Austen and her Contemporaries."
In 2018, Looser was named a Guggenheim Fellow in English literature, supporting her project on the sister novelists, Jane and Anna Maria Porter. Looser has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, the American Philosophical Society, the Huntington Library, the Newberry Library, and the New York Public Library, among others. In 2012, she led a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers at the University of Missouri on “Jane Austen and her Contemporaries."
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Looser is Past President of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M/MLA) and completed three-year terms on the Advisory Committee of PMLA (Publication of the Modern Language Association) and the MLA’s Program Committee. She has served on the MLA's Age Studies Forum Executive Committee and Late Eighteenth-Century Executive Committee. She has served on the Advisory Board of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism; the Nominating Committee of the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies; and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Jane Austen Society of North America, in which she holds a life membership. Looser sits on the advisory boards of seven scholarly journals.
Looser is Past President of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M/MLA) and completed three-year terms on the Advisory Committee of PMLA (Publication of the Modern Language Association) and the MLA’s Program Committee. She has served on the MLA's Age Studies Forum Executive Committee and Late Eighteenth-Century Executive Committee. She has served on the Advisory Board of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism; the Nominating Committee of the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies; and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Jane Austen Society of North America, in which she holds a life membership. Looser sits on the advisory boards of seven scholarly journals.
PERSONAL
With her husband, George Justice, Professor of English at Arizona State University, Devoney is raising two tween/teen sons, who find Jane Austen tolerable but untempting.
With her husband, George Justice, Professor of English at Arizona State University, Devoney is raising two tween/teen sons, who find Jane Austen tolerable but untempting.