Dr. Bain’s most pressing and urgent scholarly and critical-creative pursuits have consolidated around the history, theory, and philosophy of the African diaspora, race, gender, environmental and medical racism, the Anthropocene, and Black arts and letters.

She is currently working on two scholarly monographs. The first, entitled On Black Breath, traces a genealogy of breathing and Blackness in the United States. Her second book, Black Alchemy: Dirt, Soil and Other Dark Matter, digs into soil for understanding how Blackness has shaped global considerations of the Anthropocene and refused the extractive relations of racial capitalism.

Dr. Bain regularly teaches survey and specialized courses on 19th century through contemporary Black and American arts and cultures, literary and critical theory, and Black feminist and queer thought.

Select Publications

Bain, Kimberly. “Hold: Space.” In differences, Vol. 35, No. 2 (September 2024). 109-131.

Bain, Kimberly. “Alchemy for Our Times.” In Breath(e): ): Toward Climate and Social Justice, edited by Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake. Delmonico Books (2024). 159-165.

Bain, Kimberly. “Knowing Black Afterlives.” In The Journal of Literature and Medicine, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Spring 2024). 7-9.

Bain, Kimberly. “Black: A Speculative Almanac for the End of the World.” In Cli-Fi and Class, edited by Debby Rosenthal and Jason Molesky. Under the Sign of Nature. Charleston, VA: UVA Press (2023). 133-148.

Bain, Kimberly. “Black Soil.” Social Text 154, Vol. 41, No. 1 (March 2023): 1-19.

Bain, Kimberly. “Aftermath.” In Lastgaspism: Art and Survival in the Age of the Pandemic, edited by Daniel Tucker, Dan Wang, and Anthony Romero. Soberscove Books Press (2022). 177-190.

Bain, Kimberly and Elizabeth Murice Alexander. “The Street Finds Its Uses: A Black Digital Humanities Call and Response.” Studies in Romanticism 61, no. 1 (2022): 151-162.

Bain, Kimberly. “Groan.” Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences 30, no. 1 (2021): 225-227.

Bain, Kimberly. “Still Breathing.” Protean Magazine 1, no. 3 (Summer 2021): 68-77.

Bain, Kimberly. “Spill.” Capilano Review 3.45 (Fall 2021): 76-86.

Bain, Kimberly. “The Hardest Part of Being Black is Dying Only Once.” Khalil-Jibade Huffman: Now That I Can Dance (2020-2021). 32-41

Bain, Kimberly. “Didn’t Need, To Know.” Literature and Medicine 38, no. 2 (2020): 239–41.

UBC Dean of Arts Faculty Research Award (2024)