James Q. Davies

James Q. Davies is an Associate Professor of Music at UC Berkeley and affiliated with the Digital Humanities Team at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG). His work bridges the history of music, political ecology, and anthropology of sound, focusing on cultural techniques in music-making and their biopolitical implications.

His research spans two major publications: Romantic Anatomies of Performance (2014), exploring 19th-century pedagogical treatises and bodily cultivation, and Sound Knowledge: Music and Science in London, 1789–1851 (2016). He also edits the New Material Histories of Music series with University of Chicago Press.

Scientific Awards:

• Henry and Julia Weisman Schutt Chair in Music

He is currently working on Creatures of the Air, 1817–1913, analyzing sonic orderings of environment through breath control, air-conditioning systems, and music-climate relationships.