Rose Senior graduated from the Cultural Astronomy and Astrology MA programme in 2011. Her interest in ancient history and archaeology drew her to the programme while it was still at Bath Spa University. That interest also introduced her to University, and due to redundancy in her previous post as an HTV (now ITV West) researcher, led her to take up an administrative post in the Historical and Cultural Studies department, and then later in Admissions, at Bath Spa University where she still works. Rose is also a writer of historical and fantasy fiction, and is currently working on a photo journal/guidebook to British stone circles..

Rose talked to Kate White about the impact of the MA on her life and work.

KW: What modules did you find most interesting?
RS: I love the breadth of the MA - philosophy, history, ethnography, research, psychology. It's such a broad Classics Masters. There's so much you can dip into. The module I enjoyed the most was History of Astrology. I became interested in Ficino and his time, how they picked up and developed knowledge from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. I also enjoyed Sacred Geography and Archaeoastronomy. My first degree is in Geography, so those modules developed that interest further. I've always been interested in astronomy, but am rubbish at maths, so couldn't pursue it as a science. The MA has allowed me to look at the night sky from a human point of view. The great

KW: How did the MA affect your attitude to astrology?
RS: I'm better informed about what you can and can't do with astrology now. In the Researching Contemporary Cosmologies module, I looked at how people viewed astrology versus other psychometric tests. Many people think the psychometric tests are more scientific, although both have the same validity - it's all about patterns and how you make decisions and judgments from them.

KW: What did your dissertation focus on?
RS: We live 10 minutes from the Stanton Drew stone circles, which are located about 15 miles west of Bath. The circles are similar in size to those at Avebury and would have been at least as dramatic in their time. It's a huge site dating to the same period as Avebury and Stonehenge but hardly anyone visits it by comparison. Initially I planned to do an archaeoastronomy project on the site for my dissertation, but with guidance from Nick Campion and Bernadette Brady, I used the site to answer a question in the Skyscapes, Cosmology, and Archaeology module and for my dissertation I decided to do an ethnographic study on the people who use the site and how it has been presented and studied in the past. I interviewed local druids and dowsers, archaeologists, and people who use the site for picnics and leisure. I even interviewed Professor Ronald Hutton. Very little academic work had been done on the site in terms of ethnography, so I was breaking new ground.

KW: What doors have opened since doing the MA?
RS: The MA developed my interest in stone circles and megaliths, and for the past couple of years I've been going to as many sites as possible and creating a photo journal. I've been to sites in Anglesey and Cornwall and this May I'm visiting Aberdeenshire to look at the recumbent stone circles there. I want to publish an up-to-date walking guide for people, so they can do day visits to these sites. There are lots of enthusiasts out there and there is plenty of website information, but having an up to date handbook is well overdue.

KW: What books are you reading now?
RS: I'm not reading any academic or reference books at the moment, aside from guides and maps for my upcoming Scottish trip. I get my 'academic' fix every quarter from Time and Mind, The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. I'm just starting Ann Rice's Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (part of her Vampire Chronicles series), having finished the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. The Outlander books are about a World War II nurse who falls through the stones in a fictitious stone circle and ends up in Jacobite Scotland. It was recently made into a TV series.