YORK, Pa. — The final episode of “Downton Abbey” has aired, but that doesn’t mean that Jennifer Nesbitt, an associate professor of English at Penn State York, has stopped speaking about the series, which aired on MASTERPIECE on PBS. Nesbitt has been delighting fans of the popular show with her expert commentary on the series’ historical and literary context.
Nesbitt will be speaking at two “Downton Abbey” teas, on April 7 and 10, at The Rosemary House and Gardens in Mechanicsburg. For more information, please contact The Rosemary House at 717-697-5111. She will also speak on April 18 to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Penn State York. During this presentation, “Downton Abbey’s Fashionable History,” Nesbitt will review key points in the series by highlighting great moments in fashion. For more information on this engagement, contact OLLI at 717-771-4015 or visit http://sites.psu.edu/olli/.
Throughout the final season of the series, Nesbitt was a regular guest on online podcasts recapping episodes every Monday with WITF's Fred Vigeant and Katie Lengyel. Check out the podcasts here: witf.org/talks. She spoke at “Downton Abbey” finale events for both WITF and WHYY and has worked with WITF in the past, speaking about “Downton Abbey” at preview events in 2014 and 2013.
A faculty member at Penn State York since 2003, Nesbitt teaches a variety of writing and literature courses, including first-year composition and rhetoric, introductory literature courses in the short story and women’s fiction, and upper-level courses in literary theory, Caribbean literature, 20th century British literature, and women’s literature. In 2005, Nesbitt published a book called “Narrative Settlements: Geographies of British Women’s Fiction between Wars.” She is also the adviser and program coordinator for the bachelor of arts degree in English at Penn State York, and the discipline coordinator in English for the Penn State University College campuses.
In addition to her work on women writers, she is writing about rum as a symbol in Caribbean literature and James Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar.” In 2010–11, Nesbitt served as an Institute of Arts and Humanities (IAH) Resident Scholar at University Park. This was the first time a faculty member from York has been named an IAH Resident Scholar since the program began in 2003–04.
Nesbitt earned an undergraduate degree in history and literature in 1987 from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a doctorate in English with a certificate in women’s studies in 1999 from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.