Global Decadence Lab

The Global Decadence Lab (GDL) is a ground-breaking space within the Decadence Research Centre (DRC) at Goldsmiths. Formed in 2023, the GDL aims to support and promote research and teaching about decadence that is not restricted to a single place, culture, or historical time period. “Global” in this case refers not only to transnational, cosmopolitan, or postcolonial lines of inquiry that depart from a Eurocentric perspective, but also to the histories of enslavement, imperialism, heteropatriarchy, and white supremacy that have shaped the past that we study and the present that we live in.

Since any scholarship in a global context necessitates engaging across cultures, communities, and languages, the GDL supports interdisciplinary collaborations with Asian and Asian Diasporic Studies, Black Studies, Caribbean Studies, Disability Studies, Digital Humanities, Indigenous Studies, Race and Empire Studies, Queer Studies, Trans Studies, and Postcolonial Theory, as well as Ancient and Modern Languages. All methodologies — be they close-reading studies, distant-reading digital projects, tracing the circulation, reception, and translation of texts, and more — are welcome, as long as they take a global approach to the subject of decadence.

The GDL is currently in its soft launch phase and will soon initiate a number of projects related to research and teaching about decadence. In the meantime, however, we welcome suggestions from the wider community — both inside and outside of academia — about future projects that the GDL might pursue or support.