Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Johanna Stiebert, Professor of Biblical Hebrew at the University of Leeds. The interview took place against the backdrop of Covid 19, and Johanna explains why she has revamped her modules in the light of the events of 2020. The other big event at the time was the US Presidential election, the outcome of which was not known when we recorded the interview, and Johanna talks about her experience of living and teaching in Tennessee in the buckle of the Bible Belt. Johanna has one parent from New Zealand and the other from Germany, and her grandfathers fought on opposite sides during the Second World War. She was born in New Zealand and grew up in Germany. We learn that Johanna went to Cambridge to do a two year MPhil in Biblical Hebrew and then moved to Glasgow which she explains was the best place next to heaven. She taught English in Botswana, which was a life-affirming experience, and was there at the height of the HIV epidemic. Johanna talks about how she then lived in Knoxville an