Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Alexander Ornella, Senior Lecturer in Religion at the University of Hull where he has been since 2011. Alexander talks about his work, and how he has moved into sociology and criminology in addition to religious studies. His PhD, which he undertook in his native Austria, was on Catholic theology and looked at film and modern art. We find out about the traditional Catholic theology degree that Alexander did in the 1990s and how he wanted to become a priest. Alexander has always seen himself as navigating different disciplines, and he talks about how he follows through on students’ interests in, say, sport. We also discuss how the way of accessing data has changed since his own undergraduate days, in terms of technological change. We hear about Alexander’s childhood in the south of Austria. He remembers drives to Italy when young and how his father was into sport and nature. If he hadn’t wanted to become a priest (he was an altar boy for many years) Alexander would have studied Economics