Joan Klingel Ray, Ph.D.

Joan Klingel Ray, a native of NYC, earned her AM and PhD degrees in English at Brown University through the Brown University Fellowship. Her BA in English, Highest Honors and summa cum laude, is from SUNY Stony Brook. She came to UCCS in August 1978 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. Enjoying a wonderful career at UCCS, she retired on December 31, 2012 as Professor Emerita of English. In AY 1993/94, she was named a Univ of CO President’s Teaching Scholar. Professor Ray served as the only 3-term President of the Jane Austen Society of North America (of which she is a Life Member)  and for 14 years as President  of the North American Friends of Chawton House Library. After living for 47 wonderful years in Colorado Springs, she is delighted now to be back “home” in the northeast, where she remains active with talks at local public libraries about Jane Austen. She has also taught Austen classes for the local university’s Adult Learning Program. She has fond memories of the UCCS English Department. Her books include Jane Austen for Dummies (The Gale Group), Simply Austen (Carlini Great Lives Series) and two volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB): Jane Austen (vols 363 & 365); the DLB volumes  are found in most college and university library reference collections and in the British Library’s Humanities Reading Room.