Kita Douglas studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria before entering the Ph.D. program in English at Duke in 2011. She is also a certificate student in Gender, Feminist, and Sexuality Studies and her research interests include Asian American studies; art, aesthetics, and visual culture; and race and ethnicity in the Americas. She is currently completing a dissertation on the idea and practice of the graphic in Asian North American art and literature of the twentieth century. The project considers a range of narrative and non-narrative graphic forms including illustration, graphic novels, manga, painting, and prints that limn the graphic politics of the haptic in this period.

In addition to her studies at Duke, Douglas serves on the board of Walltown Children’s Theatre, a nonprofit performing arts school in the Walltown community of Durham where she focuses on youth empowerment and peer mentorship.