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Kate Hext is an Associate Professor in Decadent Literature and the Arts at the University of Exeter, Department of English and Creative Writing. She specializes in British and American literature and Anglo-American cinema from the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century. Her work explores themes of decadence, pleasure, style, individualism, and epiphanic moments within modernist and fin-de-siècle contexts, with particular focus on "lost stories" and representations of desire in literary texts.
Hext completed her academic training at the University of Warwick (BA in Philosophy and Literature) and the University of Exeter (MA and PhD in Critical Theory, with a PhD focused on Walter Pater's individualism). She has held significant administrative roles at Exeter including Director of Research, Head of Department through the pandemic, and Director of Global Engagement. Her leadership extends to Exeter's Social Inequality Grand Challenge program, which won an Advance HE CATE award.
Her research interests center on decadent literature, particularly focusing on Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater, with recent work exploring intersections between literary decadence, cinema, and garden history. Hext is currently working on a book about a lost Edwardian garden in Devon with literary connections. She has published extensively on decadence, modernism, and pleasure, with recent works including Wilde in the Dream Factory: Decadence and Hollywood (Oxford University Press, 2024), a new edition of Oscar Wilde's plays, and The Oxford Handbook of Oscar Wilde (both 2025).
Hext's publications reveal a strong scholarly trajectory connecting literary decadence with contemporary theoretical concerns, particularly around queer theory and spatial history. Her work spans academic monographs, critical editions, and accessible essays for the Times Literary Supplement. She demonstrates particular skill in bridging specialized academic scholarship with broader cultural commentary, as seen in her Aeon essay on the value of decadence and her TLS pieces on gardens and archival discoveries.
- Best New Journal award for Cusp: Late-19th/Early-Twentieth Century Cultures by CELJ at MLA (2024)
- Advance HE CATE award for the Social Inequality Grand Challenge program
- ESRC grant award as Principal Investigator for a project on gender inequality
Hext actively supervises PhD students working on diverse topics ranging from gothic collecting at the fin de siècle to decadence and 1970s disco. She co-founded and co-edits the journal Cusp with Kristin Mahoney and Alex Murray, which has become a significant scholarly platform in the field. Her academic leadership extends to organizing numerous international events, including the "Zooming Decadence" series during the pandemic, the 'Aestheticism and Decadence in the Age of Modernism' conference, and Heritage Lottery Fund-supported projects involving contemporary art exhibitions at the Italian Garden at Great Ambrook.
As Visiting Professor of English at Ewha Womans University in Seoul (2023-26), Hext maintains strong international connections, recently co-organizing the Modernist Studies in Asia conference in Seoul. Her current work on the queer history of an Edwardian garden in Devon demonstrates her interdisciplinary approach, connecting literary scholarship with material culture, spatial theory, and heritage studies.
