Kirby Childress is a visual culture scholar and world language educator. His dissertation, "A Phenomenology of Closet Trauma: Visual Empathy in Contemporary French Film and Graphic Novels" (2021) analyzed the way the concept of the queer closet was depicted in film and graphic novels, as well as experienced by the viewer and reader. Since graduating from OSU, he has helped build the continuation pathway for the French immersion program in Columbus City Schools. He teaches French Language Arts to former immersion students and francophone newcomers at World Language Middle School. He continues to work alongside the faculty and staff in FRIT as a lecturer, teaching distance learning and individualized instruction courses.