Speaker Biographies

Looking for Harmonia

Biography:
Aleksandra Bajić (born in Belgrade, 1954) is a doctor, specialised in neurology and psychiatry. She was working as a clinical physician, consultant in the field of neurology and psychiatry, and in the second half of her career she was a medical expert in disability insurance and in the Court of Law. In the last twenty years, escpecially after her retirement (in 2015), she has been intensively studying mythology and astronomy in culture (archaeoastronomy or ethnoastronomy). She wrote several popular books on Slavic mythology. She also translated some of primary mythological sources into Serbian (Norse Prose Eda together with Vesna Kakashevski, as well as the Welsh Four branches of the Mabinogi and the Romance of Kilhwch and Olwen). Together with Milan Dimitrijević, she translated Ovid's Fasti and Aratus' Phainomena, which were published by „Vlašići“, Belgrade in 2019 and 2020.

The interest in mythology was naturally followed by the interest in astronomy in culture. Together with Dr. Milan Dimitrijević, astronomer, Milorad Stojić (archaeologist), Hristivoj Pavlović (architect) and Stanko Milosavljević (software engineer), she participated in the formation of the Association "Vlašići" (in 2014), which conducts research in the field of astronomy in culture. She has been the President of that Association since it was founded. It is a very active organization, in which an interdisciplinary approach is nurtured and knowledge is constantly exchanged. The society has been cooperating with the Romanian society for astronomy in culture SRPAC for several years. In 2018, Aleksandra Bajić was elected an honorary member of SRPAC. She participated in the work of the SEAC Conference in 2018 and 2021. Together with Milan Dimitrijević, she is the author of several papers in the field of astronomy in culture, most of which are published and posted on the sites Academia Edu or Research gate.

Name: Nick Campion

The Harmony of Heaven and Earth: theory and action (Saturday)

The Harmony of Heaven and Earth in the paintings of Joseph Turner, Joan Miro and Geoff MacEwen (Sunday)

Biography:
Nicholas Campion is Associate Professor in Cosmology and Culture, Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and the Performing Arts and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He is Programme Director of the University's MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology. His books include the two-volume History of Western Astrology (London: Continuum 2008/9), Astrology and Cosmology in the World's Religions (New York: New York University Press, 2012) and The New Age in the Modern West: Counter-Culture, Utopia and Prophecy from the late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day (London: Bloomsbury 2015).and his current projects include the six volume Cultural History of the Universe (Bloomsbury, forthcoming), for which he is General Editor.

Name: Yuqing Chen

Beliefs and cosmology: the orientation of graves in Neolithic China

Biography:

Yuqing Chen is currently working on her PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology at the Durham University in the UK. Chen started her archaeological fieldwork in 2013 in Cyprus, where she did excavations in Kissonerga of a Bronze Age site. She was working at reconstructing Bronze Age houses in Lemba. Since then she has done archaeological fieldwork at a mass pit in Cyprus, in Greece and in China as well. Chen also lectures as a tutor for Undergraduate module 'Ancient Civilisation of the East'.

Name: Dawn Collins

Tibetan Spirit Mediums, Harmony and the Sky

Biography:
Dr Dawn H. Collins (The Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK) tutors and lectures in Religions and Anthropology with a focus on Asian Religions, Tantra, Sacred Geography, Ecology and Spirituality, Divination, Dance and Death Studies. She is also a freelance editor and proofreader, currently working on two volumes for the Dzogchen Project at Ruhr-University Bochum. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Presence in Tibetan Landscapes: spirited agency and ritual healing in Rebgong, was underpinned by ethnographic fieldwork on the Tibetan Plateau. Her research is inspired not only by anthropological experience but by practice as a dance artist and as a practitioner of massage therapies originating in Thailand and Japan. She has worked on research projects ranging from a British Academy-funded exploration of contemporary ritual dance expression in Bhutan to documentary film research about life in the Welsh valleys. She is a Research Fellow of the Foro di Studi Avanzati Gaetano Massa (FSA), Rome, Italy (Gaetano Massa Research Institute for Advanced Study of the Humanities). She is member of the Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA), the British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR), the Complementary Therapists Association (CthA) and the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM). She also belongs to a London-based Documentary Filmmakers’ Cooperative (DFMC) and an international Research Group on the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR).

Name: Nathaniel Daudrich and George Richards

Ancient and contemporary observatories in the face of climate change: a study of Namoratunga

Biographies:
Nathianiel Daudrich is the Creative and Digital Lead of Community Jameel. Prior to joing Community Jameel in July 2021, Nathaniel was a Senior Product Manager at Jellyfish, a global digital consultancy, where he led their ecommerce analytics suite focused on Amazon’s global marketplaces. A product designer and documentary filmmaker by trade, Nathaniel has a more than 10 years experience working with NGOs and UN agencies. In 2013 he co-founded True Heroes Films in Geneva, Switzerland and worked on extensive projects with the Swiss FDFA's Human Security Division, Martin Ennals Awards for Human Rights Defenders, the UN’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch, amongst others. Nathaniel first cut his teeth as a journalist in Kuwait and Egypt in the late 00s after completing his MA in Arabic and French from the University of Edinburgh in 2007. Nathaniel is passionate about the origins of human consciousness and moonlights prototyping analog/digital designs and studying decentralized technology.

George Richards is a graduate of the Sophia Centre (MA Cultural Astronomy) and is the director of Community Jameel, an independent, global organisation advancing science to help communities thrive in a rapidly changing world. Prior to becoming Director in 2020, George led strategy for the organisation from 2015, and was head of heritage programmes at Art Jameel, the arts and culture organisation, with responsibility for initiatives in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and beyond, sustaining traditional cultural practices, supporting architectural preservation, and digitally recording heritage. An Arabist specialising in the archaeoastronomy of pre-Islamic Arabia, George has undertaken field expeditions to document cultural heritage on behalf of the British Library and the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, and has served as the special rapporteur for cultural heritage to the Kurdistan Regional Government; a specialist assessor to the British government's Cultural Protection Fund; and a senior fellow at the Iraqi government's cultural heritage commission, Iraq Heritage. George took a First in Arabic and Persian from the University of Edinburgh in 2003. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and a trustee of The Prince's Foundation.

George and Nathaniel have previously collaborated as co-principal investigators in a project to record Syriac liturgical chant, published by the British Library.

Name: Marc Frincu

A look at the cosmological and Christian harmony in traditional Romanian carols and fairytales. Tracing back a long-forgotten solar myth with elements of Christianity

Biography:
Dr. Marc Frincu is a senior lecturer at the School of Science of Technology at Nottingham Trent University. He teaches computer science modules but one of his main research interests is the study of ancient skyscapes. He has published research papers in archeoastronomy focusing on sites in Romania, Serbia, and Armenia. He has written two books on general archeoastronomy, and one edited book focusing on archeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy in present-day Romania. He is the vice president of the Romanian Society for Cultural Astronomy (SRPAC) and vice president (and fellow) of the European Society for Astronomy in Cultural (SEAC).

Name: Jessica Heim

Astronomers, the Night Sky, and the Space Environment

Biography:
Jessica Heim received her MA with Distinction from UWTSD in 2020 and was a recipient of the Sophia Centre's Alumni Dissertation Prize. In her dissertation research, she studied community experiences with dark sky initiatives and 'dark sky friendly' LED streetlights. Jessica's research interests involve exploring human relationships with both sky and land, with a particular focus on dark skies, as well as ethics and policy issues associated with space exploration and development.

Name: Jack Hunter

Permaculture, Spirituality and Cosmology: Gardening in Harmony With Cosmic Principles

Biography:
Jack Hunter, PhD., is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology and the paranormal. He is an Honorary Research Fellow with the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre, and a tutor with the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, where he is lead tutor on the MA in Ecology and Spirituality and teaches on the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology. He is also a lecturer on the Alef Trust’s MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology. He is a Research Fellow with the Parapsychology Foundation, and a Professional Member of the Parapsychological Association. In 2010 he founded Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal. He is the author of Spirits, Gods and Magic (2020) and Manifesting Spirits (2020), and is the editor of Mattering the Invisible (2020), Greening the Paranormal (2019), Damned Facts (2016) and Talking with the Spirits (2014). He lives in the hills of Mid-Wales with his family. His website is: jack-hunter.webstarts.com

Name: Krystyna Krajewska

The Way of Heaven: Chinese Cosmology and the Proper Order of Things

Biography:
Krystyna Krajewska is Executive Director of the UWTSD Confucius Institute and a graduate of UWTSD’s Masters Programme The Body: Eastern and Western Perspectives. In her dissertation research Krystyna explored the sense in which the Chinese notion of the Heart (xin 心) is central to our understanding of what it means to be a human being, in contrast to what the Daoist Master Zhuangzi called the Machine Heart which sees nature simply in terms of its potential for technological exploitation. Over the past ten years or so, in her role within the Confucius Institute, Krystyna has organised workshops, lectures and courses exploring the rich cultural heritage of Chinese wellbeing, and its many expressions in contemporary society, both in China and the West. During the Covid pandemic in 2021 the Confucius Institute partnered with Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine and Northumbria University to carry out research into the effect of Medical Qigong exercise on a group of 170 volunteers. Krystyna has co-authored the resulting joint research paper with Northumbria University Wellbeing Informatics team, currently under review. Her paper entitled: The Subtle Energy Body as a Self-organising System: an Enquiry into the Lived-Experience of TCM Qigong Practitioners is published in the Systemist (Vol 42 (1) September 2001).

Name: Géza Kulcsár

Oscillations: The History of Cosmological Consonance and Dissonance

Biography:
Géza is a writer, researcher, poet from Budapest, Hungary. He holds a PhD in theoretical computer science from the TU Darmstadt, Germany and teaches at the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts, Budapest. He is a founder of the Urbanum Research Foundation, aiming a transdisciplinary understanding of the city. His interests include the theory of art and aesthetics, the interrelations of technology and spirituality, and the relevance of gnosis and metaphysics in our age.

Name: Chris Mitchell

From Heavenly Harmony to Practical Politics

Biography:
Dr. Chris Mitchell was awarded his PhD by the University of Leicester on 'Roger of Hereford's Judicial Astrology: England's First Astrology Book?', a study of Roger of Hereford, the twelfth-century translator and astrologer. Chris is a graduate of the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology and currently teaches on the programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He also teaches at the University of Leicester. He holds a diploma in Medieval Astrology from Astrologos and has given talks to groups and conferences in Europe and the US. He is the author of England’s First Astrology Book (Almuten Figuris Press, 2021), which is based on his PhD.

Name: Alina Pelteacu

The harmony of heaven and earth in Marsilio Ficino's work on health

Biography:
Alina Pelteacu holds an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology from the University of Wales TSD (2018). One of her research interests revolves around the sky and psyche themes. She writes papers (one of which will be published by Sophia Centre Press in Skylights) and speaks at conferences (e.g., Sophia Centre conferences 2020, 2021). Graduating from the Polytechnical University of Bucharest (chemical engineer's degree) and CNAM Paris (Executive MBA, 2004), she subsequently combined managerial positions in editing and printing fields, and currently works as a freelance book publisher. She wrote two essays (books), both dealing with ideas that connect to the border of psychology and cosmology in the historical milieu of the early Renaissance. One was published in the English edition in 2021, and the other is to be published in 2022. Her projects as publisher include the release in 2019 of the Romanian translation of Nicholas Campion's Astrology and Cosmology in the World's Religions. She lives in Bucharest.

Name: Claudia J Rousseau

Celestial Harmony and Astrological Magic

Biography:
Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Rousseau completed a B.A. in Art History at Hunter College (City University of New York), and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York. She is currently Professor Emerita of Art History at Montgomery College (Maryland). An internationally published scholar of Italian Renaissance art, her work has focused largely on topics associated with astrological iconography in that period, especially that which was intended to have both a benefic astrological and propagandistic purpose. Dr. Rousseau has also published widely on modern and contemporary art and is a recognized critic and independent curator of art exhibits in Washington DC and venues in Montgomery County, MD. She is Editor-at-Large of East City Art, an online art magazine covering the Washington DC region. She is a juried member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

Name: Fabio Silva

Reckoning Time Between Heaven and Earth: converging conceptualisations of time in history and anthropology, and implications for archaeology

Biography:
Fabio Silva is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Modelling at Bournemouth University and co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology. His primary research interest is how societies have perceived and conceived their environment and used that to time and adjust social, productive and magico-religious behaviours. This steered him to focus research along two distinct yet complementary strands: archaeological modelling and skyscape archaeology. With respect to the latter, he is not so interested in identifying and collecting celestial alignments but in understanding how they can help us peek into the ontologies of past societies, i.e. into how they conceived the world and their place in it. This takes careful, robust and reflexive approaches to the archaeological record – both qualitative and quantitative – which he is keen to not only explore but also develop. This has taken him to study primarily prehistoric structures in Iberia, the Mediterranean and the United Kingdom.

Name: Anupam Kumar Suman

Harmony in Hinduism

Biography:
Anupam Kumar Suman has been a student of MA Cultural Astronomy and Astrology at University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He also holds a Masters degree in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has worked as a Senior Civil Servant in India for 15 years. Currently he is leading a political movement in India named 'Plurals' and holds the post of General Secretary in The Plurals Party.