"Exactly Where I Needed to Be" — Jamie Kitts, BA ‘19 on Finding Success at STU and Beyond
STU alumna Jamie Kitts is preparing to embark on the next chapter of her academic career. Kitts has been offered a combined scholarship package worth over $35,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the University of New Brunswick, where she will begin her Master’s in English Creative Writing this September.
The scholarship was awarded based on the strength of her undergraduate performance at STU and her thesis proposal, which analyses the Transcendentalist literary movement through the video game adaptation of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.
Kitts is also celebrating the publishing of two of her poems: “Sushi Date” in The Malahat Review, a major Canadian literary journal, and “to move in a sea of names” in Augur Magazine, both coming out this spring.
Her path to this success wasn’t always easy, though it’s certainly been rewarding.
“Came to STU for my parents, but stayed for me” — Overcoming Obstacles and Finding Success
Kitts said she struggled with severe depression in high school and chose to work for a few years after completing her diploma.
When she began feeling better, Kitts said her parents were encouraging her to give university a try.
Kitts decided to try one year at St. Thomas, since she knew several family friends who taught at STU. She remained worried about how she might handle university but said the people, environment, and support she found at STU helped her push through these concerns and find success.
Kitts graduated from STU in 2019 with her Bachelor of Arts and then again in 2020 with her Certificate of Honours Standing in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing. She made the Dean’s List every year she was eligible, and won several awards, including prizes for English in third and fourth year, and the David Adams Richards Prize for Fiction.
“I came to STU for my parents, but I stayed at STU for me. This turned out to be exactly where I needed to be,” she said.
“I met so many amazing people who challenged everything I thought I understood about art, life, myself, the ways we relate to each other, grief, love, and the many human experiences.
Kitts also said going to STU helped her learn how to listen to people and learn from the experiences of others.
“I don’t know if I would have found myself to the degree that I have, or gained the insight I needed to grow, if I hadn’t come to STU and learned how to hear what people are really saying.”
Intersection Between Digital Media and Liberal Arts
During her undergraduate studies, Kitts wrote a paper on Walden that earned her a presentation spot at the 2018 Annual Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference.
During her final year, her independent study built upon that research by analyzing found reading lists from Walden, a game, a video-game adaptation of Thoreau’s most famous work.
Found reading lists are kind of like Easter eggs of other texts that creators hide in works like movies, TV shows and video games that point to what inspired the director or creators.
Kitts read all the titles to be found in Walden, a game over three months, including seven great works of philosophy, spirituality, and poetry, Transcendentalist literary journals, as well as Thoreau’s essays, poetry, and personal journal.
“I love it when a movie shows you what’s in a character’s bookshelf. Those shots can give you a kind of essential collection that can help you understand what the movie’s creators drew on when they were crafting their narrative. Videogames do this, too,” Kitts said.
Through her research and reading of Transcendentalist texts, Kitts wanted to “draw attention to the mental bridges we construct in play, through the words of a poet openly critical of our technological reliance and the ideas we digest because of that reliance.”
Looking Forward
For her master’s thesis, Kitts plans to write a book on Walden, a game. She plans to pitch the manuscript to a publisher in the U.S. that specializes in memoirs and deep-dive videogame analyses.
“I never at any point had any confidence that any of the amazing things I’ve achieved would happen. This success was not accomplished with certainty. But if you see an opportunity that you want, you have to try to take it. You will always come away learning something.”