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 are in some sense, lingering, attentional, 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, 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.

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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 and library assistant. She also briefly served as Vice President of Newnham Arts Society and as a College Mentor for undergraduates participating in the SHARE outreach programme.

 

Outside Cambridge, Jessica is a member of BAFTSS and MOVIOLA. She is one of two co-convenors of Close-Up and the founding editor-in-chief of Wasteland Arts. She was a staff writer at Cineccentric and Unpublished. She has worked as a pre-selection juror at small film festivals and attended the BFI's London Film Festival as a press delegate. At Oxford, Jessica was a film column editor for a student newspaper and contributed articles and reviews for other publications. She has a byline at 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 access.

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education

PhD, Film and Screen

Newnham College, University of Cambridge

2023 - 2026 (expected)

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MSt, Film Aesthetics

Worcester College, University of Oxford

2021 - 2022

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BA Hons, English

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

‘Reconsidering ‘unevenness’ in Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries’ 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’, 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’, Newnham College MCR Graduate Conference, Newnham College, University of Cambridge, June 2024.​​​​

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selected editorial writing

I'm Hungry, I'm Cold 

https://www.wastelandarts.com/post/i-m-hungry-i-m-cold 

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The allure of imitation

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

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Let's Scare Jessica to Death 

https://www.wastelandarts.com/post/let-s-scare-jessica-to-death

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Licorice Pizza

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

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The Woman with Two Heads

https://www.wastelandarts.com/post/the-woman-with-two-heads

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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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