119: Jasjit Singh

<div>My guest this week is Jasjit Singh, Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds where his research includes how people learn about religion and engage with their religious heritage. He is originally from Bradford and did a degree in Computer Science and Accounting at Manchester.<br> <br> </div> <div>We learn how Jasjit found that there weren’t many HE institutions which studied the Sikh tradition and about his work on a Religion and Society research project on youth. We learn why he’s an accidental activist and why his research was impactful by default. We talk about diversity in the curriculum and how important it is in terms of representation that people see Jasjit on the stage at his university’s Graduation ceremonies.<br> <br> </div> <div>He remembers encountering Radio 1 when he was in school and getting signed photos of Gary Davies and Steve Wright. Jasjit also saw Prince and Michael Jackson in open air concerts within a few weeks of each other. This was a time of bhangra music too and we learn that at Jasjit’s school there  weren’t too many other Sikhs.<br> <br> </div> <div>Jasjit recalls the days when Bradford had a massive thousand seater cinema. He remembers the queuing and how it was more of a concert than a film experience. He is a big <em>Star Wars</em> fan, and he learn about his not so accidental meeting with Mark Hamill on the red carpet and indeed how he met Luke Skywalker on the day that Luke died.<br> <br> </div> <div>We discuss how lockdown has changed the way we do what we do, e.g. in terms of conferences.<br> <br> </div> <div>We find out why Kim Knott was such an influential figure, and Jasjit asks whether universities demonstrate what knowledge production and research actually does. He says we need to recognize the limitations of some of the subjects, e.g. History in school is British history. We talk about the framing of academia and about how <em>Bend it Like Beckham </em>was a seminal movie for South Asians. <br> <br> </di