Kimberly Coles

Kimberly Coles is a Professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland. Her work focuses on intersections of race, gender, religion, and science in early modern literature and culture. She holds a PhD in English and has held research fellowships at the John W. Kluge Center, the Warburg Institute, and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Her research expertise includes Early Modern Studies, Literature and Science, and Feminist Theory. Her landmark book Bad Humor: Race and Religious Essentialism in Early Modern England (2022) examines how religious belief and racial identity were intertwined with pseudoscientific concepts of bodily 'humors' in shaping colonial ideologies. She has co-edited four essay collections and two journal issues, contributing significantly to understanding gendered religious practices in early modern Europe.

Her recent articles explore topics like heresy trials, plague narratives, and colonial representations of race and sexuality. Supported by major institutions, her work bridges literary analysis with interdisciplinary approaches to cultural history. She is affiliated with Tawes Hall and actively participates in initiatives like the DC Queer Studies Symposium.