Jessica is a PhD candidate in Film at the University of Cambridge. 

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Jessica’s thesis is a philosophical and close study of 'loose' films. It examines the aesthetic strategies of narrative films which feel, in some sense, lingering, unhurried, freewheeling, or digressive. These qualities manifest variously and distinctly across narrative cinema, so the project attends to a range of films, including titles by Jacques Rivette, Wim Wenders, Chantal Akerman, and Kelly Reichardt. The project’s principal aim is twofold: to offer fresh critical insights about individual films and to illustrate looseness as a generative optic to register and evaluate approaches to narrative filmmaking.​ This work emerged at the intersection of various research interests, including film aesthetics, slow cinema, feminist cinema, film philosophy, literary studies, and philosophical film criticism.

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In addition to her doctoral work, Jessica is an undergraduate supervisor, library assistant, and co-convenor of the graduate Film Work-in-Progress seminar series. She also held the position of Vice President of the historic Newnham Arts Society during its re-founding.

 

Outside Cambridge, Jessica is a member of BAFTSS and MOVIOLA. She is one of two founding co-convenors of the student reading group Close-Up and the founding editor-in-chief of Wasteland Arts. She has experience as a pre-selection juror at small film festivals and has attended the BFI's London Film Festival as a press delegate. During her time at Oxford, Jessica was an editor of the film column for the leading student newspaper. Before this, she contributed articles and reviews for various international publications, including MUBI Notebook. 

 

Beyond academia and editorial work, Jessica has professional experience in academic administration, specifically undergraduate and graduate admissions at the University of Oxford. She is especially interested in higher education outreach and access.

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education

PhD, Film and Screen Studies

Newnham College, University of Cambridge

2023 - 2027 (expected)

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MSt, Film Aesthetics (distinction)

Worcester College, University of Oxford

2021 - 2022

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BA Hons, English (first-class)

University of Kent with an Erasmus year at Freie Univeristät Berlin

2016 - 2020

 

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awards

Vice-Chancellor’s and Newnham College Scholarship (2023-2026)

Cambridge Trust and Newnham College, University of Cambridge

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Distinction Prize (2022)

Worcester College, University of Oxford

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Humanities Rotary Prize (2020)

School of English, University of Kent​​​​​​

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presented papers

‘Dangling conversations, flickering desires: towards and away from Chantal Akerman’s Toute une nuit (1982)’, Film Work in Progress Seminar, Queens College, University of Cambridge, November 2025

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‘‘Slight Shudders’: the Aesthetics of Emphasis in Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up (2022)’, Rethinking Rhythm in Film Symposium, Anglia Ruskin University, May 2025

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‘Reconsidering ‘unevenness’ in Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957)’ as part of ‘Forget About the Beautiful: the Messy, the Uneven, the Disappointing, and the Silly’ Film and Philosophy SIG panel, BAFTSS Annual Conference 2025, University of Warwick, March 2025

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‘Narrative Carousels and Modes of Play in Jacques Rivette’s Céline et Julie vont en bateau (1974)', Preface, Prelude, Prologue: an interdisciplinary symposium, University of Sussex with Lewes Depot Cinema, June 2024

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‘Everything turns into Formica: Visualising Crisis in Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970)’, Newnham College MCR Graduate Conference, Newnham College, University of Cambridge, June 2024​​​​

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selected writing​

The allure of imitation

https://www.wastelandarts.com/post/the-allure-of-imitation​​

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Licorice Pizza

https://cineccentric.com/2022/01/18/licorice-pizza/​

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Visualizing Liberation in 'But I'm a Cheerleader'

https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/visualizing-liberation-in-but-i-m-a-cheerleader-9518

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