Faculty, students, and staff in the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media (JWAM) and the Coordinated Arts Program (CAP) in the Faculty of Arts at UBC are mourning the loss of Dr. Kirby Jessie Manià, who passed away suddenly last month.
Her loss will be felt by all of us who were fortunate enough to have worked alongside her as colleagues, students, research partners, and community members. Our thoughts and prayers are with her partners and family at this difficult time.
Kirby’s range as an educator, literary critic and scholar committed to public and undergraduate engagement in the research and creative cultures within the academy was staggering. Her areas of special interests included, but were not limited to, postcolonial studies, ecocriticism, South African literature, environmental studies, writing pedagogy, true crime, and poetry. She excelled—and proved inspirational—in all of them.
After a year as a sessional instructor, Kirby joined JWAM as a Lecturer in 2019 in its Writing Studies unit. In 2024, she was jointly appointed in JWAM and CAP as an Assistant Professor of Teaching. She held an MA in Modern Literature and Culture from the University of York in the UK and a PhD in English from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
While it’s hard to list all of Kirby’s accomplishments and passions, the persistence and prominence of certain areas show how confidently she balanced her scholarly role with her responsibility as a socially conscious citizen and her dedication to students. She was, among numerous examples, part of a small team in WRDS that researched and produced the unit’s first Anti-Racist Toolkit for the Writing Classroom.
She was an integral member of the SHARE project (Students Harnessing Academic Research for Exchange), a multi-year knowledge-mobilization project in which students in select Faculty of Arts courses translate research on vulnerable communities in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside into accessible infographics.
This built on her earlier innovation in WRDS 150, where she piloted the use of research infographics in a writing classroom. It also reflected her advocacy for finding accessible ways for undergraduate students to develop their own scholarly voice and immerse themselves in the university’s research culture.
As a community-minded scholar of teaching, Kirby developed a partnership with Sweetgrass Sisters Healing Society, an Indigenous grassroots organization that focuses on trauma recovery and cultural healing for women and families in Vancouver. And as part of her commitment to environmental justice, she moderated talks and contributed to activities in the Centre for Law and the Environment at the Peter A. Allard School of Law.
Kirby was an integral part of the close-knit CAP community, having built deep relationships with CAP faculty, staff, and students. She was the founder of CAP’s student journal, The Capsule, now entering its fifth year. The Capsule offers a unique opportunity for first-year students to publish scholarly work and has been hugely popular among CAP students who have had their work published and gained experience as editors and peer-reviewers.
Over the past year, Kirby had been working hard to develop relationships between current students and CAP alumni. She was a driving force behind CAP’s 20th Anniversary event, which brought many alumni back to the program to celebrate in September 2025.
Between her educational leadership projects and her commitment to nurture socially inclusive and environmentally conscious networks, Kirby found time for her roots as a literary scholar and a creative writer. Over the past decade, she published extensively on South African literature. She was and will remain one of the finest and most astute reviewers and readers of South African novelist and essayist Vlad Vladislavić.
She also wrote about the work of Damon Galgut, the South African novelist and winner of the 2021 Booker Prize. She co-created, co-launched, and co-edited two issues of SPROUT: An Eco-Urban Poetry Journal, to which she also wrote several editorials.
The above is but a glimpse into the wonderful mind and heart of an exceptional colleague and human being. Conversations with Kirby always took exciting and unexpected turns as she talked about the things that ignited her passion and stirred her mind.
Kirby was committed to creating a safe and inclusive space for her students, offering support above and beyond her teaching duties. As much as her achievements underline the enormity of our collective loss, they also provide a roadmap for everyone in JWAM, CAP and the Faculty of Arts to keep her legacy and her memory alive.
Plans for a memorial service at UBC in the fall will be announced in due course. Condolences can be shared here and will be shared with Kirby’s family in due time.
