;Books as author •
Desiring the Dead: Necrophilia and Nineteenth-Century French Literature (Oxford, EHRC, 2003) •
Patrice Leconte (French Film Directors Series; Manchester University Press, 2004) •
The Cambridge Introduction to Michel Foucault (Cambridge University Press, 2008) •
Film and Ethics: Foreclosed Encounters (co-authored with Libby Saxton; Routledge, 2009) •
The Subject of Murder: Gender, Exceptionality, and the Modern Killer (Chicago University Press, 2013) •
Fuckology (Chicago University Press, 2014) co-authored with
Iain Morland and Nikki Sullivan, a critical analysis of the legacy of
psychologist and
sexologist John Money.
New Scientist described the book as "ably capturing" Money's story while
Susan Stryker described the book as a "careful, critical and nuanced" analysis of Money's career. •
Selfish Women (Routledge, 2019). Emma Wilson described the book as "startling, trenchant and original" and stated that "Downing's critical brilliance, command of the material, and uncompromsing approach are dazzling". •
Against Affect (University of Nebraska Press, forthcoming 2026) ;Books as editor •
Currencies: Fiscal Fortunes and Cultural Capital in Nineteenth-Century France (with Sarah Capitanio, Paul Rowe and Nick White; Peter Lang, 2005) •
Perversion: Psychoanalytic Perspectives/ Perspectives on Psychoanalysis (with Dany Nobus; Karnac Books, 2006) •
Birth and Death in Nineteenth-Century French Culture (with Nigel Harkness, Sonya Stephens and Tim Unwin; Rodopi, 2007) •
From Perversion to Purity: The Stardom of Catherine Deneuve (with Sue Harris; Manchester University Press, 2007) •
Queer in Europe: Contemporary Case Studies (with Robert Gillett; Ashgate, 2011) •
Queering the Second Wave (with Lara Cox; Edinburgh University Press, 2018) •
After Foucault: Culture, Criticism and Theory in the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press, 2018) •
Critical Freedoms (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) ==References==