Andrew Hass

It was a pleasure to meet Andrew Hass, Reader in Religious Studies at the University of Stirling, on a recent trip to Glasgow. Andrew has been at Stirling since 2003 after undertaking a PhD in Glasgow in the 1990s. Originally from Canada, Andrew discusses the concepts of home and belongingness and how we identify ourselves in a global context (e.g. ‘a citizen of the world’), prompting questions of nostalgia for one’s homeland. In Andrew’s case Scotland is a place that intellectually formed him.

Andrew talks about his classic middle class upbringing and a childhood of stability and privilege in which there was no strong legacy of going to university, which he says was largely about bettering one’s parents’ standard of living. His father was an electrical contractor and Andrew discusses how he didn’t set out to have a career in academia.

We talk at some length about the role of music. Andrew identifies the extent to which popular music evokes memories, such that we are immediately drawn back to a certain era through the simple listening to a song, and how it can bind people together in a way few other media are able to do. Jazz was a particularly formative part of his young adulthood, followed by progressive rock and then classical music. Andrew’s latest project is centred on the relationship between music, spirituality and religion and culture.

Andrew introduces the concept of ‘superficial nostalgia’ and outlines how, when there’s chaos around, the calming effect of music can be requisite to one’s sanity. We learn why Andrew grew up listening to so much Joni Mitchell in whose music he has found a lyrical and poetic depth which is equivalent to the works of the best craftsmen.

We then move on to talk about how literature was the pathway into his present discipline and the intersections between English and theology. We discuss the consequences of pursuing an interdisciplinary agenda and Andrew outlines his hope that dialogue with musicologists can open up spaces which neither of them knew existed before.

We learn why those of us who work in Religious Studies might be said to be on a particular kind of journey that necessarily disrupts the kinds of presuppositions and inherited perspectives that were part of our early development. Andrew tells us why belief is irreversible and why he looks back on his early years with a sense of gratitude (as distinct from nostalgia) and he explains why he wouldn’t want to go back to that period of his life.

The interview concludes with Andrew’s assessment of whether he is a looking back or a looking forward person. Andrew discusses the circularity of time and the manner in which the present is always impregnated with the past but that the future is always now, such that we can conceive of nostalgia as being forward-looking.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Andrew Hass and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.