91´«Ă˝

Jessica Saxby

Lecturer

  • Department: Comp. Literature, English, and Creative Writing

Jessica Saxby has been at the American University of Paris since 2025 where she teaches an EN1010 class entitled “Environmental Histories and Ecological Perspectives in Art and Literature”. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Working at the intersection of cultural enquiry and art history, she is interested in decolonial ecologies, botanical and agricultural histories, and questions of technology, cultural memory and transmission in these contexts.

Her thesis, entitledĚýBallast Flora, Plants and the Politics of Colonial Memory in FranceĚýexamines the erasure of colonial histories in France, and explores how this not only occludes the colonial roots of environmental destruction, but naturalises and perpetuates continuing extractive modes of inhabiting the earth. It draws on the artworkĚýSeeds of ChangeĚýby artist Maria Thereza Alves, looking at the possibilities afforded by interdisciplinary artistic practices for historical enquiry that might destabilise cultures of erasure by reconnecting histories of imperialism, colonial science and the transformation of environments.

From 2020-2024 her doctoral research was supported by a four-year fellowshipĚýfrom the Consortium for the Arts and Humanities awarded by the UK Research Institute (UKRI).

From 2024-2025 she was Research Assistant to Professor Françoise Vergès as part of the project “Imagining the Post-Museum” for the Banister Fletcher Global Fellowship in Urban Studies.

She has taught Art, Politics and English at universities in France and the UK including Goldsmiths; University of London Institute in Paris; Université Paris 10 Nanterre and Université Paris 1 Sorbonne.

Publications

  • « L’art, la tradition, et le militantisme, une Ă©cologie des pratiques contre la science coloniale » inĚýRevue Ĺ’conomia Humana - Les Ă©cologies dĂ©coloniales: pe(a)nser une Terre inhabitable. Vol. 3 (forthcoming)
  • “Imperial Botany” in theĚýEnvironmental Humanities Glossary: Emergent Key Terms., edited by Ulrik Ekman and Daniel Irrgang. University of Copenhagen. 2025.Ěý
  • “Art in Britain: Between Austerity and Endurance” with Vasundhara MathurĚýMetropolis M. nr 5. oct-nov. 2024Ěý
  • “La visiĂłn del haba” in :ĚýFuturos abundantes, Turner/TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. 2023Ěý
  • Second FloweringsĚýwith Jemma Stewart. Published by the Consortium for the Arts and Humanities Climate Justice Network, 2022.
  • “The Dose that Makes the Poison” with Chanelle Adams and Samir Boumediene, podcast for TBA21 on st_age. 2022.
  • “Plant memory” in :Ěýezprogui, libro primero. ed. a(e) (Ayesa). 2022Ěý
  • « Ce que disent les plantes » with Samir Lagouati Rashwan and Marion Vasseur-Raluy inĚýSève, revue littĂ©raireĚýn°1. 2022
  • « Komunuma, artwashing en banlieue parisienne : la colonialitĂ© de la dĂ©mocratisation culturelle » inĚýDocumentations Art.Ěý2020.Ěý
  • “Does Returning Colonial Loot Run the Risk of Collective Amnesia” inĚýFrieze Magazine,Ěý2019Ěý

Conferences & Lectures

  • "Decolonial Ecologies and the Art of Planting"ĚýforĚý"Art History Warmed Up" at theĚýAssociation for Art History 2026 Annual Conference, University of Cambridge. April 2026
  • "Artistic and Scientific Methods for a Decolonial Ecology in the work of Maria Thereza Alves"Ěýguest lecturerĚýat the seminar "Practices of Ecology, Ecological Practices" Master 1 Histoire de l’Art. Paris 1 PanthĂ©on Sorbonne. Novembre 2025
  • "Imperial Botany, Extraction, Transfer and Erasure"ĚýatĚýĚýContested & Erased Energy Knowledges University of Dundee. Octobre 2024
  • "Seeds and Colonial Memory in Maria Thereza Alves’ĚýSeeds of Change"ĚýConsortium for Humanities and Arts South East Network Annual Encounters, University of Sussex. June 2022
  • "Planetary Aesthetics in Maria Thereza Alves’ artworkĚýSeeds of Change"ĚýEcologies Research Stream Study Day, Goldsmiths, University of London. JuneĚý2021
  • « La gĂ©nĂ©alogie d’Achille Mbembe en tant que modèle anticolonial »Ěýlors de la journĂ©e d’étude « La philosophie europĂ©enne Ă  l’épreuve de l’autre : critique postcoloniale et dĂ©colonisation de la pensĂ©e » UniversitĂ© Paris 8. Mai 2017