Sebastian Kaempf

Professor Sebastian Kaempf of the University of Queensland joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast this week.Seb grew up in Germany, with the fall of the Berlin Wall happening when he was entering his teenage years. While it had a big impact on him,  he distinctly remembers his parents’ emotional reactions to that moment. He also was a conscientious objector and thus did not serve in the German military but his service was in some ways even more challenging as he notes here. Seb talks about going to uni in Germany before transferring to the LSE for his Bachelor’s and Masters, heading towards the academic track being trained for his PhD under Nick Wheeler and Alastair Finlan at University of Aberystwyth Wales. His first gig on a post-doc working with Alex Bellamy at UQ where he has been ever since. He discusses how the Theaters of War film project came about, what that was like, how he approaches writing, his co-hosted podcast with Al Stark, Higher Ed Heroes, what he does to unwind, and how he and friend of the pod and Hayseed Scholar co-host Matt McDonald will likely become the next big indie rock band as they are currently playing venues in Brisbane where they have achieved almost cult status at this point.