Scholar Carly Thomsen will screen part of her new documentary In Plain(s) Sight and give a talk titled “Queering the Rural: Visibility, Politics, and the Production of Place” at 12:30 p.m. Monday, December 5, in the Illinois State University LGBT/Queer Studies and Services Institute, located in the Professional Development Annex at 207 S. Main St., Normal.
The talk will be the final lecture in the ISU QUEERtalks series, which features new scholarship in the interdisciplinary field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer studies.
Thomsen, an assistant professor of gender, sexuality, and feminist studies at Middlebury College, will discuss her research with LGBTQ-identified people living in the rural Midwest, and will screen part of her new documentary-in-progress that is based on her book project, Unbecoming: Visibility Politics and Queer Rurality.
Thomsen teaches courses on LGBTQ issues, feminist and queer theory, reproductive justice, engaged research and activism, and food politics, and she has worked with various activist organizations including the White Earth Land Recovery Project, Planned Parenthood, and campus-based Women’s Centers. Understanding and fostering the interplay between academic and activist ideas motivates much of Thomsen’s work.
Her research has been supported by various fellowships and grants, including the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship, UC Doctoral Scholars Fellowship, and the Mendell Fellowship in Cultural Literacy from the Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life. Thomsen’s work has appeared in scholarly journals and texts, such as Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Queering the Countryside: New Frontiers in Rural Queer Studies, Feminist Studies, Feminist Formations, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice, and The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory.
The talk is sponsored by the Harold K. Sage Foundation and the Illinois State University Foundation Fund.
The talk is part of the Illinois State University Speaker Series. The series seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process. All talks are free and open to the public.
