In plain sight
an exploration of gay rights, lgbtq women, and rural place
Carly Thomsen
Director and Producer
Carly Thomsen is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies at Middlebury College. She completed her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Rice University. Her dissertation won the American Political Science Association’s Kenneth Sherrill Dissertation Award for work on sexuality and politics as well as the Lancaster Dissertation Award for the Social Sciences, an honor that recognizes the potential for social impact. Thomsen’s work on reproductive justice, LGBTQ activism, queer rurality, intersectionality, and feminist pedagogy is published in: Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society; Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy; Feminist Studies; Feminist Formations; Journal of Lesbian Studies; Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice; Queering the Countryside: New Frontiers in Rural Queer Studies; The Legacies of Matthew Shepard: Twenty Years Later; and The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory.
Thomsen’s book, Visibility Interrupted: Rural Queer Life and the Politics of Unbecoming was published with the University of Minnesota press (2021). Her next book, Queering Reproductive Justice, is under contract with the University of California press. For more information about Thomsen’s work, please visit www.carlythomsen.com.
Sinead Keirans
Editor
Sinead graduated from Middlebury in 2014 with a B.A. in Film and Media Culture. Since graduating, she has worked as a post production assistant to Director Todd Haynes on Carol (2015) and at WGBH Educational Foundation as a production assistant on Lifestyles and National Programming for PBS.
Connor Sloan
Producer
Connor Sloan is a student at Middlebury College (class of 2019.5) where he studies Film and Media Culture. Fueled by curiosity and a love for storytelling, Connor joined the In Plain Sight team as an editorial assistant. Connor has thoroughly enjoyed diving into this new experience and is honored to be a part of this important project. His contributions include serving as Producer and shooting parts of the documentary. In his free time, Connor enjoys practicing photography and exploring the great state of Vermont with his friends. He is from Harvard, MA.
Tate Serletti
Public Relations Developer and Media Analyst
Tate Serletti is a student at Middlebury College (class of 2020) who is pursuing majors in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies as well as Arabic. Tate joined the In Plain Sight team after taking Professor Thomsen’s “Queer Critique” class the previous spring. For the project, she undertook supervised research within LGBTQ studies in order to create pedagogical resources that situate the film squarely within Rural Queer Studies. The three pedagogical modules Tate developed are intended to meet the needs of different groups, including high school and college students and community organizers.
Liza Tarr
Senior Website Developer and Media Analyst
Liza Tarr studies Philosophy and Religion at Middlebury College (class of 2019). Liza’s academic focus on public moral discourse and passion for disrupting mainstream ideologies drew her to the In Plain Sight project. Liza designed and developed the website platform for the documentary and also researched and analyzed instances of metronormativity within pop culture and media. She is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this team and this project.
Emma Hampsten
Assistant Editor and Photographer
Emma Hampsten is a student at Middlebury College (Class of 2018.5) and will be graduating with a degree in Film and Media Culture and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. Her interests reside at their intersection; she studies not only how film can convey and explore issues related to gender and sexuality, but also how media works to construct the ways in which we see and understand bodies, people, and identities. She is thrilled to have been included in a project that does exactly that. Emma edited the original trailer for the film.
Rebecca Wishnie
Media Analyst
Rebecca Wishnie is a student at Middlebury College (class of 2020), majoring in Geography and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. She is particularly interested in the ways in which power structures and systems of oppression become written onto physical space and senses of place. She became involved in the In Plain Sight project after taking a class on Queer Critique with Professor Thomsen. As a research assistant during the summer of 2018, she contributed to the creation of the In Plain Sight website by analyzing instances of metronormativity in gay rights activism. She is from Newton, MA.
Kaitlynd Collins
Animator
Lily Shale
Animator
Reed Martin
Logo Design
Kaitlynd Collins is a student at Middlebury College (class of 2019) studying Theatre and Psychology. She also loves animating and drawing, which drew her to Professor Thomsen's proposal to create an animation for In Plain Sight. She has been absolutely ecstatic to learn more about rural queer life and collaborate with so many talented people on such a multi-faceted project. Kaitlynd is also the Cartoon Editor for The Middlebury Campus newspaper and the co-President of Middlebrow Improv Comedy.
Nell Sather
Music
Lily Shale is an Environmental Studies and Film and Media Culture student at Middlebury College, class of 2020. Inspired by her interest in 2D and 3D animation, Lily joined the In Plain Sight team to create the animation that appears in the documentary. She is excited to embark on a project where she can give concepts and stories visual weight and form. She is also working on an abortion animation with Middlebury’s animation studio. Lily is thankful for the way these projects have allowed her to engage with intriguing concepts through her artistic strengths.
Charlotte Cahillane
Music
Reed Martin is a student at Middlebury College (class of 2019) studying Studio Art and Architectural Studies. She is interested in using her knowledge of the built and visual world as a lens with which to think about larger, non-physical power structures. Being involved in this project was an exciting actualization of this interest. Reed designed the logo for In Plain Sight.
Ellie Vainker
Film Director and Cinematographer
Nell Sather graduated from Middlebury College in 2019 with a B.A. in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. She worked with Charlotte Cahillane to write and record the Metronormativity song and provided music for the introduction. She has had a blast combining her interests in Queer Studies and music to help with this project!
Charlotte Cahillane is a student at Middlebury College (class of 2019.5) and studies French and Francophone Studies. Outside of her academic pursuits, Charlotte loves singing and participating in music, especially music which means something. After taking Introduction to Queer Critique with Dr. Thomsen, she co-created a song about metronormativity for In Plain Sight. She is immensely thankful for the opportunity to continue to engage thoughtfully and musically with queer theory throughout this project.
Ellie Vainker is a PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at Rice University, where she led the Ethnographic Film Society’s Q Series: LGBTQ Lives on Film. She has published reviews in Ethnos and Great Plains Quarterly and is a Digital Content Editor for Cultural Anthropology. Prior to graduate studies, Ellie freelanced in the documentary and film industry in London, UK as a researcher. Ellie has an undergraduate degree from the University of Edinburgh in Social Anthropology and an MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London.