For me, theology is grounded in an orientation towards the other, opening our eyes to the world around us, being struck by its significance, and inspiring others to do the same. It is only by approaching the world and each other in this way that we can develop and grow, personally, and in communion.
Announcement December 2021
Dr Férdia Stone-Davis has secured a prestigious grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Férdia will be conducting a project entitled ‘The Epistemic Power of Music: On the Idea and History of Artistic Research through Music’ in conjunction with the Institute of Music Aesthetics, and the Doctoral School for Artistic Research, both part of the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz Austria. The project will offer a new and nuanced clarification of the kinds of knowledge music involves – not only to further the music-specific discourse in aesthetics, but also the wider theoretical discourse on artistic research. Férdia will be giving updates about the project via blog posts on her website: https://ferdiastonedavis.com . The project will begin on 1 January 2022 and last until 31 December 2024.
During academic year 2020 2021, as part of Catholic Theology and Practice, she taught ‘Catherine Keller: Process, Relation and Entanglement’ . She is also co-taught the MA in Contemporary Ethics, and the core module ‘Human Condition’ (which runs across the four MAs).
She supervises across a range for the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, including Philosophy of Religion, and Ethics. She was awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in 2021 (Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge).
Her research interests centre upon music and its relation to philosophical and theological anthropology, ethics, epistemology and world-making. This is embedded within a longstanding interest in theology and the arts, and theological language.
She was involved in a project funded by the Plater Trust with Dr Elizabeth Phillips (MBIT 2020 Fellow). Flourishing Inside is a participatory action research project aiming to develop rich, targeted theological and ethical resources for pastoral work in prisons which is informed by and contributes to Catholic social thought.
Other roles
Affiliated Lecturer, Divinity Faculty, University of Cambridge
Postdoctoral Bye-Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
Mentor for graduate students in Divinity at Newnham College, Cambridge
Chair of the Royal Music Association Music and Philosophy Study Group
Associate Editor of Forum Philosophicum: International Journal of Philosophy.
Publications
Books and journal issues
Music and Transcendence, ed. F. J. Stone-Davis (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015).
‘Home: Creating and Inhabiting Place through Music Activity’, Contemporary Music Review 34(1) (2015), ed. F. J. Stone-Davis. (Oxford: Taylor and Francis).
The Soundtrack of Conflict: The Role of Music in Radio Broadcasting in Wartime and in Conflict Situations (Olms, 2013).
Musical Beauty: Negotiating the Boundary between Subject and Object (Cascade, 2011).
Peer-reviewed chapters, articles and blog posts
‘Sin and Redemption’, in Companion to Theology and the Arts, eds Stephen Garrett & Imogen Adkins (T&T Clark, forthcoming 2021).
‘Revaluing Silence’, in On Commemoration, eds. Catherine Gilbert, Kate McLoughlin & Niall Munroe (Bern: Peter Lang, 2020).
‘Giving Space to Silence’, in On Commemoration, ed K McLoughlin, N. Munro and C. Gilbert (Oxford: Peter Lang), forthcoming (2020).
‘The Consolation of Philosophy and the “Gentle” Remedy of Music’, in Music, Myth and Story, eds. K. Butler and S. Bassler (NY/Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer), 2019.
Giving Space to Silence. Response to panel ‘The Rest is Silence’, part of the Post-War: Commemoration, Reconstruction, Reconciliation Mellon-Sawyer Seminar Series at The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (2018).
‘Punk Political Science – Worldmaking, Worldbreaking and Living on the Edge‘. Crick Centre Blog (2016).
‘Making an anthropological case: cognitive dualism and the acousmatic’, Philosophy: The Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy 90(352): 263–76 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
‘Music and Liminal Ethics: Facilitating a ‘Soulful Reality’’, in The Resounding Soul: Reflections on the Metaphysics and Vivacity of the Human Person, eds. E.A. Lee and S. Kimbriel (Eugene, OR: Veritas, Wipf and Stock, 2015).
‘Introduction: Sense Making and Place Making Through Music’, in ‘Home: Creating and Inhabiting Place through Music Activity’, Contemporary Music Review 34(1) (2015), 1–4, ed. F. J. Stone-Davis (Oxford: Taylor and Francis).
‘Worldmaking and Worldbreaking: Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer’, in ‘Home: Creating and Inhabiting Place through Music Activity’, Contemporary Music Review 34(1) (2015), 101–20, ed. F. J. Stone-Davis (Oxford: Taylor and Francis).
‘“Vocalising Home”: An Interview with Trevor Wishart’, in ‘Home: Creating and Inhabiting Place through Music Activity’, Contemporary Music Review 34(1) (2015), 5–21, ed. F. J. Stone-Davis (Oxford: Taylor and Francis).
‘Vivaldi Recomposed: Max Richter in conversation’, in ‘Home: Creating and Inhabiting Place through Music Activity’, Contemporary Music Review 34(1) (2015), 44–53, ed. F. J. Stone-Davis. (Oxford: Taylor and Francis).
‘Introduction’, Music and Transcendence, ed. F. J. Stone-Davis (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015), 1–10.
‘Musical Meaning and Worldmaking: Haydn’s String Quartet in E flat major (op. 33 no. 2)’, in Music and Transcendence, ed. F. J. Stone-Davis (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015), 125–45.