Areas of expertise
Theology and the Arts; the visual art, poetry and writings of David Jones; Philosophical theology, particularly doctrines of creation; ecology and theology; and philosophies of place
Courses taught
Theology and the Visual Arts
Bio
Dr Powell received her PhD from the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge in 2016 in philosophical theology. Her dissertation explored questions of theological genre and method by way of a close engagement with selected artworks by the twentieth-century artist and poet, David Jones. Following graduation, she held a two-year position at the University of Cambridge as Teaching Associate in Christian Theology, lecturing on figures such as Augustine and Julian of Norwich. She then became the La Retraite Fellow in Theology and Spirituality at the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University and also served as the academic lead for the Catholicism, Literature, and the Arts III: Liturgy and Place conference, co-hosted by Notre Dame London and Centre for Catholic Studies in July 2022. Most recently, she completed a postdoctoral position as Research Associate for the Templeton-funded project, Phenomenology of Theological Practice: Modelling Enquiry and Poiesis, also at Durham University. She began teaching her course in Theology and the Visual Arts at Notre Dame London in the Fall of 2021 and is currently at work on her next monograph, tentatively titled, Wild Liturgy: The Ecological Vision of David Jones.
Select Works
David Jones and the Craft of Theology: Becoming Beauty. New Studies in English Theology. London:
Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2020.
‘Paradoxes of Enclosure: David Jones’s Nativity’: (Part I or III). In Commonweal Magazine. Issue
September 2020.
‘Do not worry’: A Theological and Visual Commentary on Matthew 6/Luke 12:22-34. Visual Commentary
on Scripture: Encountering the Bible in the Company of Artists. https://thevcs.org/seek-ye-first-kingdom-god/
do-not-worry
‘The Quest for Sacrament in David Jones’s Poem, “A, a, a, DOMINE DEUS”’. Special Issue: David
Jones: Towards a Theology of History. Religion and Literature. 49, no. 1 (Summer 2018).