Kym Weed

Kym Weed is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of English & Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She serves as Co-Director of the HHIVE Lab and Associate Director of the Literature, Medicine, and Culture (LMC) Graduate Programs. Her academic background includes a PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill (2018), an MA from the University of Maryland (2011), and a BS in Biochemistry from Lebanon Valley College (2006).

Her research bridges American literature, disability studies, and health humanities, focusing on microbial narratives in 19th-century texts and interdisciplinary healthcare studies. She co-leads the HHIVE Lab’s projects, such as the Falls Narrative Study and the Carolina Breast Cancer Study Phase 4, which examine health disparities through patient narratives. She teaches courses in health humanities, medical ethics, and disability studies across UNC’s English department and School of Medicine.

Prof. Weed has received the Erika Lindemann Teaching Award (2016) and grants from the Linberger Cancer Center and Institute for the Arts and Humanities. She collaborates across disciplines, including epidemiology and anthropology, and serves on the Health Humanities Consortium steering committee.