UTC students explore England through Jane Austen’s eyes

A study abroad excursion to England’s Jane Austen Center gave members of the UTC travel party an opportunity to dress in Regency-era clothes. Photo courtesy of Anna Melby.

Students from a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga course had the opportunity to immerse themselves fully into the life and world of Jane Austen by traveling abroad to England.

The opportunity came thanks to Dr. Jayda Coons, assistant professor of English for the UTC Honors College, as part of her spring 2024 course titled Jane Austen’s World. For nine days in March, students visited several of Austen’s most famous whereabouts—including her homes in Chawton, Bath and London.

For the first half of the semester, Coons led students through reading and discussing some of Austen’s earlier works—allowing students to learn about the author before engaging with her legacy in person.

The overall goal of the class, Coons said, is to understand how Austen’s works were relevant within their period and how they’re still valuable today.

“It sort of reveals to you that what we do in the classroom has a bearing on the outside world,” she said. “These kinds of questions and concerns find their way out into other spaces.”

Coons also provided students with the necessary information and expectations about international travel. Several students in the class had no overseas experience and some had never been on a plane, so it was important to Coons to prepare the class well and quell their fears and questions.

Students were split into six small groups of three based on themes they chose for their final presentations. Tasked with tracing this theme throughout the semester, students needed to link it to something they learned on the trip.

“That was a way of building in some intentionality around what should you be looking out for and absorbing while you’re here,” Coons said, “and also connecting them so that if they did come into the class without a friend group established, they had someone that they could of lean on.”

She said the trip included guest lecturers and expert tour guides who led students through the different museums and tributes to the novelist.

Upon returning from England, the class read Austen’s last full novel, “Persuasion,” and the author’s final unfinished work, “Sanditon.” Austen died in 1817 at the age of 41.

“Students feel closer to the texts since they now have a full understanding of what each setting looks like,” Coons said.

During the Jane Austen’s World study abroad trip to England, UTC freshman Adelynn Morrell visited Stonehenge.

Adelynn Morrell

Adelynn Morrell, a veteran domestic traveler, was especially excited to go to Europe for the first time. England holds a special place with her mother, who also traveled to the country on her first study abroad trip.

The freshman, studying biology and psychology, was inspired to take the class when it was announced during one of the Honors College’s monthly meetings. Morrell loved “how passionate Professor Coons was about Jane Austen” and took the chance to apply.

Morrell loved each location that the class visited, but she highlighted the beauty of Big Ben and Stonehenge.

“You can’t even comprehend how much it’s going to blow you away until you see it,” said Morrell, a native of Franklin, Tennessee.

Morrell said she kept an open mind and had few expectations for the trip, so coming up on the rocks of Stonehenge for the first time was indescribable.

When visiting Chawton and Chawton House, owned by Austen’s brother and now a museum and archive for 18th-century women writers, the tour guide pointed out that several things were original and preserved. Morrell, along with “feeling immersed in Austen’s world,” felt an appreciation for the “commitment to preservation.”

Anna Melby

Anna Melby, a freshman pre-professional biology major from Arlington, Tennessee, had never been out of the country before spring break. She didn’t even know what customs was. Despite the inexperience, she was more excited than nervous.

“All of Austen’s work seemed so hard to grasp because they’re so dignified and regarded. Seeing those kinds of aspects made it seem a lot more ordinary. It made it seem a lot more approachable and a lot more like stories from a girl telling about her life,” she said.

Melby loved seeing how the English setting played a role in Austen’s writing. In discussing her visit to Chawton House, she said it “was touching to look out of Austen’s bedroom window and see the same view that the writer once saw.”

As the semester ends, she continues to reminisce on the trip that already seems so far away.

Ellie Minneci

Like Melby, Ellie Minneci had never been abroad before. Excited and ready for an adventure, the sophomore psychology major would make the most of her days by waking up early to explore and stay up late to “savor every moment of being there,” she said.

“The trip went beyond my expectations; I really didn’t know just how many things we would do or experience,” said Minneci, a native of Crossville, Tennessee. “We went to so many museums, toured so many different towns, and I drank so much tea. By the end of the trip, I felt like we were there for so much longer than a week.”

One of the best parts of the trip for Minneci was the Jane Austen Center, “where many of the girls dressed up in Regency-era clothes,” including Honors College Dean Linda Frost.

“She pretended to be a character from “Pride and Prejudice,” and that was probably the best thing I have ever seen in my life,” Minneci said.

Mia Speller

Junior criminal justice and English literature major Mia Speller loved being able to share the experience with her friends and sister, Haylee—a freshman in the Honors College.

One of her favorite memories was exploring a field near Chawton House. There, Mia and Haylee decided to recreate a famous painting called “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” by Casper David Friedrich, where they looked out onto a sea of sheep instead of fog.

“It was just really cool to be there and be with them, and kind of remove ourselves from our normal setting—and still have fun and be ourselves and enjoy what we were doing,” said Speller, who grew up in nearby Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee.

Speller also loved being in the same spaces as Austen, especially Bath. Throughout the city, she could see evidence that people still remembered the author. For example, there was a stained-glass shop that had a “little Jane Austen” in the window, she recalled.

“That was really cool because you learned so much,” she said. “Everyone knows about her and they were so excited to talk about her.”