Image and Introduction
Role in the University
I am involved in marking papers for the Cultural Astronomy and Astrology MA and teaching sessions via distance learning in the History module of the Cultural Astronomy and Astrology MA. In addition, I give presentations at the summer school held every year, and at UWTSD’s London campus for occasional one-day conferences.
Background
I have a PhD from the University of Leicester on the introduction of astrology into England in the twelfth century via Latin translations of Arabic and Hebrew astrological texts from the Islamic world. I also teach the concepts of medieval astrology to final year undergraduate history students at the University of Leicester, and give regular talks at both astrology-related and academic conferences, for example at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.
Academic Interests
In 2019, I completed my PhD at the University of Leicester and had previously graduated from Bath Spa University College with an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology in 2008. My academic interests are in the history of astrology – my MA having been on the development of the zodiac in Babylonian texts, and my PhD on the translation of predominantly Arabic astrological manuscripts into Latin in the twelfth century. I am a tutor on the History of Astrology module of the Cultural Astronomy and Astrology MA at the University of Wales Trinity St. David (HPCA7017 History of Astrology) and teach sessions on this module and mark students’ papers.
Research Interests
My academic research revolves around the twelfth-century translation movement of astrological and computistical texts from the Islamic world, which were written primarily in Arabic, into Latin and investigating the impact this new knowledge had in disseminating the study of astrology in Christian Europe. I also have an interest in the role that Jewish scholars played from the eleventh century to the fourteenth century in the field of astrology and its spread into Christian Europe, given their unique role in living in both Islamic and Christian lands.
Expertise
I have a strong background in the techniques of medieval astrology, and work with medieval manuscripts, which has necessitated studying palaeography and Latin formally. I have attended various conferences on the digitisation of manuscripts using tools to make documents easier to analyse by computer software, a particular interest of mine.
Enterprise, Commercial and Consultancy Activities
In addition to my teaching at UWTSD, I am a director of a software consultancy producing software for NHS hospitals, and also run a small consultancy providing astrological services of a technical nature. Projects have included producing astrological and astronomical tables for a magazine publisher, producing an ephemeris for a Japanese publishing company, and producing supporting tables of lunar phases for a popular freeware app.
Publications
2008: ‘Did the division of the year by the Babylonians into twelve months lead to the adoption of an equal twelve-sign zodiac in Hellenistic astrology?’, MA thesis.
2014: ‘Astrology: Part of integrated health care?’, Press Release from the University of Leicester published in the Leicester Mercury
2020: ‘Roger of Hereford’s Judicial Astrology: England’s First Astrology Book?’, PhD thesis, University of Leicester.
Additional Information
I was awarded a travel grant to present a paper at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, entitled “The Rabbi, the Pope and the Black Death: Levi ben Gerson’s Prognostication for the Conjunction of 1345” in 2015.