معرفی
Kirk Bryan Sides is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with affiliations in African Cultural Studies and the Center for Culture, History and the Environment. He earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA and has held academic positions at the University of Bristol (UK) and the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa).
His research focuses on African literature and environmental thought, particularly how ecological and decolonial imaginations intersect in 20th- and 21st-century literary works. He is currently completing a book titled African Anthropocene: The Ecological Imaginary in African Literatures, and has co-developed the 'Anthropocene Storytelling' workshops, which use narrative as a tool for understanding climate crisis.
His recent publications span journals such as Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, Critical Philosophy of Race, and Verge, reflecting interdisciplinary engagement with race, environment, and speculative fiction. These works collectively emphasize narrative form, historical memory, and ecological futurity in African and global postcolonial contexts.
- Futures Fellow, Rachel Carson Center for the Environment and Society (2021)
- Visiting Scholar in Residence, Penn State Humanities Institute (2021)
Kirk has received research funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Fulbright-Hays. He serves on the editorial board of the University of Wisconsin Press and is a steering committee member of the Center for Culture, History and the Environment. While no direct advisees are listed, he teaches courses such as 'Literatures of Decolonization' and 'African Environmental Narratives,' shaping future scholarship in these fields.
He is actively involved in collaborative academic initiatives, including hosting the 'Anthropocene Storytelling' workshops at institutions like Penn State, USC, and the University of the Witwatersrand, fostering creative and critical dialogue on planetary change.
