Dr. Kila van der Starre is specialised in modern and contemporary Dutch language poetry. In 2021 she defended her dissertation Poëzie buiten het boek. De circulatie en het gebruik van poëzie (Poetry Off the Page. The Circulation and Use of Poetry, with an English summary), which is available online as a free e-book. Her main supervisor was prof. dr. Geert Buelens and her co-supervisor was dr. Laurens Ham. Van der Starre received PhD funding from NWO ('Promoties in de geesteswetenschappen'). She is interested in the ways people use poetry in their everyday lives, in poetry education and in the relationship between the medium of poetry and the meaning of poetry.
In her dissertation Van der Starre focuses on poetry in public areas (street poetry), on social media (Instagram poetry), on bodies (poetry tattoos), on objects (poetry products by Plint), on the radio (Candlelight poetry) and connected to live events (poetry in obituaries).
Since her defense, Van der Starre has focused on researching the history of oral literature in the various Dutch-speaking areas in the world.