Lauren Pilcher

I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. I research and teach at the intersection of film and media and American cultural studies with an emphasis on gender, race, and sexuality. Nonfiction films and media—mid-20th c. to present—as well as theories of image archives are my broad area of focus at the moment. My academic identity is interwoven with my experience as a trans, queer person from the US South. Coming out has been a long-term process of deconstructing notions and representations of difference in southern cultures and ideas of place that delimit non-normative gender and sexuality alongside racial and class difference. I am invested in research, teaching, mentorship, and community involvement that privileges the cultural visibility of people marginalized at intersections of identity and place-based bias.