If we are focusing on the topic of empire as our broad umbrella topic, I would be interested in exploring either empire and patriarchal gender roles or empire’s influence on determining the value of an individual, or a person’s social status. Gender is obviously a very important aspect of Austen’s writing and general focus, and exploring it from the point of view of empire’s role in her era would be helpful in understanding where her ideas, frustrations and messages stem from. The growth of the british empire contributed greatly to the dominance of the male patriarchy in Austen’s time. The same is true for social status, as the nuances and complications of social interaction and “personal value” in Austen’s time period were undoubtedly influenced by the idea of empire. There are some very interesting secondary sources that are available to look to on this subject, connecting it to the controversial writings of Galton and Spencer. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24254922)
If we are not focusing on empire, I would like to continue to pursue the topics of judgement and perspective in the novel, and how Austen uses free indirect discourse as a tool to communicate political and social messages subtly yet effectively.