The Sophia Centre was founded in the School of Historical and Cultural Studies at

Bath Spa University Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the city of Bath, and one at Corsham Court in Wiltshire. The insti ...

in 2002, as the first University centre in the world to teach cultural astronomy (defined as "the study of the application of beliefs about the stars to all aspects of human culture, from religion and science to the arts and literature") and the history and culture of astrology.

Background and current status

In 2004,

Michael York Michael York OBE (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television and stage actor. After performing on-stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Ro ...

, the centre's director, was appointed the world's first professor of cultural astronomy and astrology. In 2008 the Centre transferred to the

University of Wales, Lampeter University of Wales, Lampeter ( cy, Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan) was a university in Lampeter, Wales. Founded in 1822, and incorporated by royal charter in 1828, it was the oldest degree awarding institution in Wales, with limited ...

. The centre is now in the Department of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the renamed University of Wales Trinity Saint David (formed by the merger of the University of Wales, Lampeter and the Trinity College Carmarthen. The current director of the Sophia Centre is

Nicholas Campion Nicholas Campion (born 4 March 1953) is a British astrologer and historian of astrology and cultural astronomy. He is the author of a number of books and currently pursues an academic career. Career Astrology Campion is a former ''Daily M ...

. The centre's teaching, via the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology, is based in a wide view of astronomy and astrology as providing a framework for culture, and the analysis of the way in which cosmos provides a reference for human activity. The centre began teaching archaeoastronomy in 2010 and holds an annual conference from which several volumes of proceedings have been published (see below).Campion, Nicholas, and J. McKim Malville, ‘MA Education in Archaeoastronomy at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’, in Clive Ruggles (ed.), ''Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy: Building Bridges Between Cultures'', Proceedings of International Astronomy Union Symposium 278, (the 9th "Oxford" International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy), Lima, Peru, 4–14 January 2011, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 357-363.

Publications

The centre is associated with the Sophia Centre Press and publishes the bi-annual journal, ''Culture and Cosmos''. Volumes of conference proceedings include: * Campion, Nicholas, Patrick Curry and

(eds.) ''Astrology and the Academy'', papers from the inaugural conference of the Sophia Centre, Bath Spa University College, 13–14 June 2003. Bristol: Cinnabar Books 2004. . * Campion, Nicholas and Patrick Curry (eds.), ''Sky and Psyche: The Relationship between Cosmos and Consciousness'', Edinburgh: Floris Books 2006. . * Campion, Nicholas (ed.), ''Cosmologies: Proceedings of the seventh Sophia Centre Conference'', Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press, 2010. .

References

Journal sources

External links

*{{official website, http://www.tsd.ac.uk/en/sophia
Sophia Centre Press
*
Culture and Cosmos
' University of Wales, Lampeter Astrological organizations