Evolutionary biologist and poet Brandon Kilbourne to visit KU
LAWRENCE — Brandon Kilbourne, a research biologist at the Berlin Museum of Natural History, is the author of “Natural History” (Graywolf, 2025) and the winner of the 2025 Cave Canem Prize. He will visit the University of Kansas Nov. 17-18 and participate in two public events.
Kilbourne’s first book of poetry, “Natural History,” builds upon the author’s understanding of the world through his formal academic training as an evolutionary biologist. His research interest has long been the relationship between movement and evolution in mammals — more specifically, how an animal’s anatomy governs its biomechanical potential, and how both anatomy and function have changed over time and across species. Kilbourne earned a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from Louisiana State University and a doctorate in evolutionary biology from the University of Chicago. Throughout his career, he’s worked internationally at natural history museums in Denver, Chicago and Berlin.
“Natural History” spans deep time and engages in speculative dialogue with ancient creatures. It interrogates the ways in which institutions have distinguished between human and not human by separating audience and object in the pursuit of knowledge. It examines the trajectory from curiosity and wonder to collecting and possession. It asks readers to consider the ways in which colonial pursuits have impacted not only the people and more-than-human people in the past, but also the current moment, in which the legacies and practices that characterized early exploration show up in societies still today. It draws upon ancestral lineages and the traumas that are carried across generations and phylogenies.
“Acknowledging the wonders and horrors of the deep and recent past can serve as a means for clarifying the present, guiding us towards an understanding of the interdependence of beings past, present and future,” said Brian Atkinson, associate curator of paleobotany at KU’s Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and associate professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, who is co-hosting Kilbourne’s visit to KU. “Kilbourne elegantly articulates this in many of his immersive poems in ways that can upwell a range of profound emotions.”
Kilbourne’s interests and work appeal to a range of work across KU. His inquiry about the roles of museums and the care with which they steward knowledges and histories will inform a dialogue with Carlton Shield Chief Gover, KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum assistant curator of archaeology, who is also a citizen of the Pawnee Nation. Moderated by Emily Ryan, director of The Commons, this conversation will take place at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at The Commons.* Those who wish to attend online may also do so by registering here.
A second event will take place at 7 p.m. Nov. 18. Kilbourne will give a poetry reading in The Forum, Chalmers Hall. Book sales and a signing, hosted by the Raven Book Store, will follow.
Kilbourne’s visit to KU is supported by The Commons, the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, the Environmental Studies Program, the Spencer Museum of Art, the Museum Studies Program, the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and the Office of Sovereign Partnerships & Indigenous Initiatives.
*This event is presented in The Commons in Spooner Hall and via Zoom. NAGPRA repatriation compliance is ongoing in this building. With 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States representing diverse worldviews and cultural beliefs, tribal citizens at KU and in the community should be advised by their tribal and cultural leaders regarding proximity to particular objects for cultural and religious reasons. Therefore, any event in this space will address this current reality and offer a Zoom option for attendance, ensuring that access to the information being shared is open and available. For more information about the status of repatriation work, visit KU's repatriation web page.