Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has just released the third instalment of his podcast series on ‘Nostalgia‘.

In the latest podcast, Chris interviews Dr Montserrat Roser i Puig, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages, who presents 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 way that she and her siblings will often share different recollections of the same events. She relates the desperate urge she had to leave the village where she grew up, and the way she was a trailblazer for her family in seeking an education, against the instincts of her father, and how she moved to London and ended up studying for her doctorate.

Montserrat reflects on the important role that cinema played in her childhood – especially Monty Python’s The Life of Brian (1979) – when she would often see three films in an afternoon.

The interview concludes with some very personal insights about the influence of religion in her native Catalan, as well as important reflections on the nature of belonging – where and how we belong, whether our understanding of identity changes over time, if we can ever truly escape our pasts, and the concomitant danger of looking back.

The podcast is available here.