Dr Jessica Gossling
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Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Jessica is an internationally recognised scholar of literary and visual decadence
Jessica's research is focused on literary and visual decadence, aesthetics, and nineteenth century art and literature. She is co-deputy director of the Decadence Research Centre and completed her PhD on Decadent Threshold Poetics in 2018.
Her work includes books and essays with leading academic publishers, editorial leadership of Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, and the curation of international conferences and cultural events.
She teaches decadence, modernism, poetry, and literary theory. In 2025-2026, Jessica is convenor for:
Creative Critical Project (UG Year 1)
Literary London (UG Year 3)
European Decadence and the Visual Arts (MA)
Academic qualifications
- PhD, ‘Decadent Threshold Poetics’, Goldsmiths, University of London 2018
- MA, Twentieth Century Literature and its Contexts, Goldsmiths, University of London 2007
- BA Hons, English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London 2006
- PGCE, Post-Compulsory Education (English), Institute of Education, University of London 2009
Teaching and supervision
Jessica's office is WT406. Please feel free to drop in during her office hour (Mondays 12-1) or email for an appointment.
- Decadence
- Introduction to Poetry
- Literature and Power in the Victorian Period
- European Decadence and the Visual Arts
- Creative Critical Project
- Ideas in Practice
- Literary London
Research interests
Jessica has written edited collections, book chapters, and journal articles on decadence and interdisciplinary studies.
Recently, she has written about decadence, the occult, rot, and decadence's intersection with the Blue Humanities.
Featured publications
2025:
Decadent Bestiary
Strange Attractor
2022:
'Interior Decoration: Designing Decadence’
The Oxford Handbook of Decadence, ed. by Jane Desmarais and David Weir
2019:
‘From the Drawer to the Cloister: Ernest Dowson’s ‘Poésie Schublade’
In Cynara’s Shadow: Collected Essays on Ernest Dowson, ed. by Alice Condé and Jessica Gossling
2018:
‘The Devil in the Detail: An Introduction to Decadent Occultism from the Editors’
‘Decadence, Magick, and the Occult’, Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 1.2
2018:
‘Decadent Threshold Poetics: A Comparative Study of Threshold Space in Charles Baudelaire, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Ernest Dowson, and Arthur Symons’
PhD thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professional projects
• Founder and Deputy Editor of the groundbreaking academic journal, Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies
• Founder and Treasurer, BADS: British Association of Decadence Studies
• Creator of Decadence, Esotericism, Magic, and the Occult Network
• Principal member of several European and global research networks; including the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network, Neo-Victorian Decadences, and Decadent Pedagogies
• Editorial Assistant for With Climate in Mind:
Psychoanalysts on Climate Breakdown (2025) and Cambridge Critical Concepts: Decadence and Literature (2019)
• Assistant Editor for The Literary Encyclopedia
Media engagements
2023:
'The Rise of the Posh Goth'
The Times
2021: Staging Decadence
2020:
Free Thinking - Magic
BBC Radio 3
Conferences and talks
2025:
Decadent Times: Drift, Drag, and Deliquescence
INCS Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference. Speed and Acceleration, Università di Genova
2020:
‘Decadent Magic in Arthur Machen’s The Hill of Dreams (1907)’
Magickal Women Summer Salon, Online
2019:
‘Extreme Unction: Decadent Purification in Ernest Dowson’s Catholic Poetry’
Death and the Sacred, Manchester Metropolitan University
2018:
‘White Stains: Aleister Crowley’s Decadent Minimalism’
Decadence, Magic(k), and the Occult, Goldsmiths
2016:
‘Dowson’s ‘Poésie Schublade’
Ernest Dowson (1867-1900): Poet, Translator, Novelist, Goldsmiths
2014:
‘“Things worldly and things spiritual”: The Motif of the Hothouse in J.-K. Huysmans’s À rebours’
Decadence and the Senses, Goldsmiths
2013:
‘Dislocations, Correspondences and the Hothouse: Baudelaire’s Prose Poems’
Goldsmiths Literature Seminar (GLITS)
DMON
Jessica is setting up the Decadence, Magic(k), and Occult Network (DMON) in the Decadence Research Centre.
Please email her if you are interested in this or any other projects related to decadence and occulture.