NW Missouri Times

Dr. Jenny Rytting, a professor of English and assistant chair at Northwest Missouri State University, presented her research at the Global Jane Austen Conference held in Southampton, United Kingdom, in July. The event marked the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and featured presentations from scholars around the world.

Rytting’s presentation was titled “Two Global Figures: Jane Austen and Carl Jung.” Her paper explored links between Austen’s literary work and Jung’s psychological theories. She said that attending conferences helps her develop new ideas for her courses. “I think in a variety of ways, going to conferences is energizing, and it puts me in touch with other scholars,” Rytting said. “I get great ideas from them, and I learn additional perspectives based on the panels I attend and bring back ideas that then I can tell my students about, which is really exciting.”

The conference was one of several events taking place globally this year to honor Austen’s birth in 1775. Rytting noted the significance of attending an event held in a town where Austen lived part of her life. “When I first heard of it from one of my colleagues in Brazil, I was immediately excited,” she said. “Certainly, it’s not the only big Jane Austen conference. They’re kind of springing up all over because of this anniversary year, but this one was really special because it was held in a town where Austen actually lived for part of her life.”

After presenting at the conference, Rytting visited locations connected to Austen's life and work such as Chawton—where many novels were revised—Winchester—where she died—and Steventon—her birthplace. Winchester College allowed visitors into No. 8 College Street for the first time during the summer; this residence was Austen's last home.

Reflecting on visiting these sites, Rytting said: “It was surprisingly moving. They had one sofa because Austen writes about sitting on the sofa and looking out into the garden. Being able to stand at the window and look out and imagine Austen in the last days of her life, seeing that same view, was neat. They had quotations from her final letters and her sister Cassandra’s final letters, and reading those words aloud in that space was really powerful.”

Rytting incorporates insights from academic conferences into her teaching at Northwest Missouri State University by introducing new content or techniques to benefit students. This fall she is working with students on an Austen-related project for another upcoming conference celebrating the author’s anniversary.

“Sometimes I’m able to find a published version of something I’ve heard at a conference and bring that into the classroom as well,” Rytting said. “Another thing that I like to do is in my graduate classes, we often end with a class symposium where I ask students to write papers as if presenting at a conference, and we put them into a panel and small-scale replicate that kind of experience.”

Rytting has been with Northwest since 2006; she specializes not only in early British literature but also medieval visionary literature, history of English language studies, children’s literature, and young adult literature.

She completed her undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University before earning advanced degrees from Acadia University (MA) and Arizona State University (PhD).