The latest episode of the podcast series on ‘Nostalgia’, hosted by Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has just been released.
In this week’s interview, Chris interviews Kyla Greenhorn, who is studying for a PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Kent. Kyla was born in Kansas and she discusses the reasons why so many American students choose to study in the UK. She decided from a young age that she wanted to move to Europe, and now sees the US as a foreign country. She talks about how her family is predominantly Republican and pro-Trump, and how this doesn’t sit well with her being a member of the LGBT community.
Kyla comes from an evangelical background and her sexuality affected her entire family dynamics, especially after she came out as bisexual to her mother. She discusses with Chris how the experience changed her, and how she can now make a stand for causes she believes in. Musically, Kyla reminisces about the boy bands she grew up listening to and how her musical tastes these days range from heavy metal to church music and how music is the most consistent thing in her life. She also explains why Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is her favourite movie and we learn what happened when she once performed a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire.
We learn why at school Kyla tended to avoid Religious Studies, and how and why she subsequently found an unexpected way into the subject. The conversation then moves to her experience of dealing with bigotry when it comes to gender and sexuality and to societal prejudices towards homosexuality.
To find out more about opportunities for further study in Religious Studies and other subjects, visit www.kent.ac.uk/postgraduate/.