199: Eleni Kapogianni

Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Eleni Kapogianni who I have known for about a decade. Eleni lectures in Linguistics at the University of Kent, and we talk about the big role that film (and film dialogue) plays in her research. Storytelling and fiction is a big hobby for Eleni, and we discuss the permeable nature of the work-life balance and find out about her work in pragmatics and discourse analysis, and how discourse is shaped by societal trends.
Eleni talks about growing up in a seaside town in Greece and living on her grandparents’ farm. Her parents are both academics, her mother is a Philosophy Professor and her dad’s area is Politics. Eleni was taken to Philosophy conferences at a young age, and we learn that she knew from when she was a child that she wanted to be a teacher.
She did her MPhil and PhD in Cambridge before coming to Kent, and Eleni reflects on how different Linguistics conferences are now compared to the Philosophy ones she went to as a child.
We talk about filmic representations of our professions and about the role of music and identity. Eleni has always loved radio as a medium. She didn’t have TV when growing up and Eleni reflects on the magical and confessional nature of radio, with a community coming together. And, she talks about the importance to her these days of podcasts.
We find out what Eleni’s younger self would think about what she is doing now, and vice versa. We learn that her best friend from when she was young is (and always has been) a sheep herder and that Eleni is the only one from her village who went away.
Then, at the end of the interview, we find out why Eleni is both a looking back and a looking forward type of person.