Her research focuses on Third Cinema, African American, African, and feminist film and media; theories and practices of Black liberation; radical imaginaries, with broader interests in critical theory, cultural studies, Africana studies, and gender and sexuality studies. In 2007, Duke University Press published Keeling's first book, The Witch's Flight: The Cinematic, the Black Femme, and the Image ofCommon Sense. In this book, Keeling argues that the cinema's ability to structure social reality, thus producing and reifying racism, homophobia, and misogyny, can be disrupted by the figure of the black femme. Despite her lack of representation in hegemonic imagery of race and gender, she haunts that imagery, constantly threatening to make visible alternative social arrangements. Kara Keeling has also written influential articles such as "Looking for M-: Queer Temporality, Black Political Possibility, and Poetry from the Future," published in GLQ: Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies in 2009 and "Queer OS" published in Cinema Journal in 2014.
"Looking for M-: Queer Temporality, Black Political Possibility, and Poetry from the Future"GLQ: Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 2009.
In her article "Looking for M-: Queer Temporality, Black Political Possibility, and Poetry from the Future," Keeling discussed the experiences of Black queers through looking at films such as Looking for Langston, Brother to Brother, and The Aggressives. Keeling focuses her writing on the temporality and spatiality of the Black queer experience. Keeling also discussed figures such as Frantz Fanon and his lack of acknowledgement or discussion on this topic. She notes that in The Aggressives, time is marked by trends and products within hip-hop culture. Further expanding on the spatiotemporal nature, Keeling goes on to talk about the disappearance of one individual, M-. "Hir disappearance must prompt us to ask not the policing question attuned to the temporal and spatial logics of surveillance and control, but, rather, in this case, the political question of when M —’s visibility will enable hir survival by providing the protection the realm of the visible affords those whose existence is valued, those we want to look for so we can look out for and look after them". Keeling clearly addresses the fact that the ways in which society functions in the temporal and spatial might not always be ideal for those labeled as the "Other," such as M-.
