Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

Silvia Rasca was the first international student to be elected President of the Students’ Union at Canterbury Christ Church University and has recently joined the staff at the University of Kent where she is an Assistant Project Manager for the Integrated Student Frontline Services Project. In this fascinating interview, Silvia talks about her journey to Canterbury from Romania and the political t...

In this very candid interview, Alan Le Grys, who teaches in the Religious Studies department at Kent, talks about growing up in the South London suburbs, on the edge of the largest council estate in the UK, in a house that, when he was young, it was thought might be haunted, and where he felt the presence of his deceased grandparents. Alan reflects on how at school he was the last child to be pick...

In this week's interview, Michael Hughes, who works in the English Language & Linguistics department at Kent, talks about how a two week job turned into one that has lasted 24 years. Michael knew from the age of 10 that he wanted to be a teacher, and he recounts his working class background, where money was tight, and his experience of being taught at a grammar school in his native Guernsey, i...

Graeme lectures in Philosophy at the University of Kent, and in this week's interview he talks about which other professions he considered entering before becoming a professional philosopher as well as the 7 years he spent on the job market and how he learned to 'play the game' of academia. He discusses the concept of 'impostor syndrome' and whether it is possible to speak about 'non-trivial futur...

In this week's interview, Laura Bailey, who lectures in English Language & Linguistics at the University of Kent, talks about growing up in Newcastle and how the university culture has changed over the decades. Laura places her earliest memory from when she was two and a half years old and she talks about her penchant for undertaking creative activities as a child, and how she especially enjoy...

This is one of those 'to die for' interviews. My guest this week is Simon Kirchin, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Kent. Simon grew up in a working class family in Dudley and he talks here about how he ended up in Oxford and the circuitous route that brought him to Kent in 2003. We learn about Simon's earliest, 'traumatic', memory and the important role that rituals and stru...

In this captivating, and passionate, interview, William Rowlandson, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Kent, talks about growing up in the West Country and the roots of his love for teaching. William identifies a 'binding thread' which runs throughout our lives from school through to retirement and offers his personal view on what he considers to be one of the inadequacies of...

Montserrat Roser-i-Puig is Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Kent and, in the third of my Nostalgia Interviews series, gives a fascinating slice-of-life about growing up in Franco's Spain. Montserrat talks about the important role that memory plays in her family, including the very vivid initial memory she has from when she was just 2-3 months old, and she talks about the wa...

Paul March-Russell teaches Comparative Literature at the University of Kent and is a specialist in science fiction. In the second of my Nostalgia Interviews, Paul talks about his earliest memories and how television played a role in shaping his identity. We discuss the pitfalls of 'going back' to one's childhood home and about how Paul followed a path in academia but that it wasn't where he necess...

David Walsh is an archaeologist at the University of Kent and the perfect guest for my first podcast. David used to present a radio programme when he was a student at Reading and he speaks very freely about his earliest memories, the music he grew up with, what inspired him to become an archaeologist (dinosaurs may have had a little to do with that!), his political dispositions and his competitive...