Kristin Mahoney

Kristin Mahoney is a Professor of English at Michigan State University, serving as Associate Chair of Graduate Studies and Director of Literary Studies. Her research focuses on late-Victorian Decadence and its transnational afterlives, exploring intersections of queer kinship, cosmopolitanism, and modernist cultural shifts. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame (2004) alongside earlier degrees from Notre Dame and New College of Florida.

• Education
• Ph.D., English, University of Notre Dame (2004)
• M.A., English, University of Notre Dame (2001)
• B.A., Literature, New College of Florida (1998)

Research Interests
Her work disrupts traditional periodization by tracing how Victorian Decadence influenced 20th-century cultural and political movements. Key themes include: queer kinship networks, decolonial readings of Decadence, and the role of aesthetic practices in challenging normative structures. She employs archival materials to reveal bohemian affiliations and experimental connections across borders.

Publications & Editorial Work
Her books Queer Kinship After Wilde (2022) and Literature and the Politics of Post-Victorian Decadence (2015) are central to her scholarship. She co-edits Cusp: Late 19 th-/20 th-Century Cultures and the Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition series. Her articles appear in Victorian Studies, Criticism, and Feminist Modernist Studies.

Academic Leadership
She co-created the journal Cusp, which received the CELJ Best New Journal Award in 2024. Her teaching spans Victorian literature, queer studies, and modernist avant-gardes.

Labs/Teams
Her editorial collaborations and interdisciplinary courses (e.g., ENG 814: Transnational Decadence and Modernism) reflect her commitment to bridging historical periods and global contexts.