Peter Moore

It was a privilege to catch up again with Peter Moore who came to the University of Kent in 1971 and taught Religious Studies over the course of the following 40 years. Peter begins by discussing the composition of the department when he arrived where he was only one of three staff in Religious Studies. We discuss the influence of Ninian Smart and how Peter came to discover Religious Studies through literature. For Peter, multi-disciplinarity is important and he explains his pedagogical approach of always engaging with students at the level where they are.

Peter was born just outside London at the end of the Second World War and he talks about his passion when young for Latin. We learn that Peter doesn’t have especially vivid memories of the past and we discuss the interpretive nature of nostalgia, the co-relationship between the past and the future, and whether it is possible to be nostalgic about his four decades at the University of Kent. We cover the long hot summer of 1976 and discover what Peter was doing on campus when he learned about the death of John Lennon.

Peter discusses his musical influences, which include modern jazz and Indian music and, latterly, classical music and baroque operas, and we learn whether any film can be nostalgia-provoking. Peter tells us why ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’, for example, is such a moving film about coming to terms with one’s past.

We chat about whether it is possible to share one’s nostalgia with another person and why, for Peter, nostalgia is a Protean term. We discuss how grief is one of the most extreme contexts for nostalgia and whether nostalgia is cerebral or whether it is an emotion, and why mindfulness and Buddhism might be thought of as being the antithesis of nostalgia.

In the final part of the interview we discover whether there are any ‘what ifs’ in Peter’s life and we find out why Peter doesn’t consider himself to be an ambitious person as well as why he feels the past is sometimes best left alone.

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