Dr Jenny Doussan
Staff details
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Jenny is interested in the convergence of language and image in art, media and politics.
Jenny's research follows two trajectories: the first relates to material culture and the foundation of modernity, with an emphasis on the nineteenth-century; the second follows the work of Giorgio Agamben with respect to the experience of language, image and law. She also maintains an interest in techniques and theories of visibility and the physiological eye.
She is currently working on a manuscript based on her module 'Fashion as a Dialectical Image' that brings the urgency of the present to Walter Benjamin's sporadic thought on fashion.
Academic qualifications
- PhD Visual Culture, Goldsmiths 2011
- MA History of the Decorative Arts & Design, Parsons School of Design 2002
- BA cum laude Studio Art, Loyola University, New Orleans 1999
Teaching and supervision
In addition to MA Dissertation supervision, Jenny teaches the third-year undergraduate option module 'Fashion as a Dialectical Image', which she is currently developing into a book, and the first-year core module 'Seeing & Showing'.
Jenny is interested in PhD projects that address the history and techniques of visibility, image / language, the performativity of law, and material culture including fashion and textiles.
Featured publications
Grants and awards
2013: Early Career Research Fellowship, AHRC
Publications and research outputs
Book
Doussan, Jenny. 2013. Time, Language, and Visuality in Agamben's Philosophy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137286239
Book Section
Doussan, Jenny. 2024. Attestation 3. In: Sarah Wilson; Michaël La Chance; Jenny Doussan; Carrie Pilto and Boris Groys, eds. Une œuvre d’art face au tribunal: sur Pornopolitique de Piotr Pavlenski. Paris: Au Diable Vauvert, pp. 51-65. ISBN 9791030706680
Doussan, Jenny. 2022. P. In: Pyotr Pavlensky, ed. Pornopolitics and Other Precedents. London: MOTHER, pp. 86-89. ISBN 9791041502981
Doussan, Jenny. 2013. Eros, Plague, Olfaction: Three Allegories of the Curatorial. In: Jean-Paul Martinon, ed. The Curatorial A Philosophy of Curating. London: Bloomsbury Academic Publishing, pp. 79-92. ISBN 9781472525604
Article
Doussan, Jenny. 2016. Writing Lines: Agamben contra Nietzsche. Cultural Critique, 92, pp. 114-136. ISSN 0882-4371
Doussan, Jenny. 2013. Time and Presence in Agamben’s Critique of Deconstruction. Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 9(1), ISSN 1832-9101
Doussan, Jenny. 2012. The Scent of the Jonquil. Rattle ~ A Journal at the Convergence of Art and Writing, 3,
Conference or Workshop Item
Doussan, Jenny. 2023. 'Protesting Law with the Law: The Case of Pyotr Pavlensky'. In: Critical Legal Conference 2023: Sanctuary. Durham University, United Kingdom 11-13 September 2023.
Doussan, Jenny. 2019. 'From Tigersprung to the Appropriation of Unreality: Between Benjamin and Agamben on Baudelaire'. In: Baudelaire and Philosophy, British Society of Aesthetics Conference. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 5 - 6 June 2019.
Doussan, Jenny. 2018. 'Sovereign Will'. In: Opening Potentialities: Thinking Ontology and Action with Giorgio Agamben. London, United Kingdom 15 November 2018.
Broadcast
Kristensen, J C; Doussan, Jenny; Hannan, Leonie; Smith, Kate; Hendon, Zoë and Wildgoose, Jane. 2014. Paperweight Radio: Collections (S2, EP1).
Performance
Doussan, Jenny. 2023. Expert Witness at the trial of Pyotr Pavlensky. In: "Witness at the trial of Pyotr Pavlensky", Tribunal de grande instance de Paris, France, 28 June 2023.
Doussan, Jenny. 2012. Benjamin in Moscow. In: "dOCUMENTA 13. 'Readers Circle: 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts'", Kassel, Germany.
Professional Activity
Doussan, Jenny. 2018. Respondent - On Agamben and gesture.
Thesis
Doussan, Jenny. 2011. Intention and Exception: A Critique of the Work of Giorgio Agamben. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London
Conferences and talks
2023:
Protesting Law with the Law: The Case of Pyotr Pavlensky
Critical Legal Conference