Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Joanne Pettitt, Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent. Jo and I begin by talking about the art of teaching and the feeling of history that one gets from reading a physical book and the nostalgia of children’s books. Jo comes from what she describes as a typical British working class background in Nottingham against the backdrop of the miners’ strikes. She didn’t grow up in an academic environment, and Jo reflects on developing consciousness at university. She developed quite a strong liberal agenda at university, and talks about how this doesn’t always fit with going back. Jo talks about being a really nostalgic person but having a terrible memory and how university comprises the building blocks of her life. We also discuss whether it is good to go to another institution after graduating for postgraduate study and why some institutions don’t always accommodate people from particular socioeconomic backgrounds. We learn about Jo’s work in Holocaust Studies, what s