Alexia Kosmider has traveled the academic terrain of anthropology, American studies, literary studies, queer studies and documentary filmmaking during her years at RISD. Her early scholarly work focused on the writings of turn-of-the-century Native writers. She published Tricky Tribal Discourse, which examines the poetry, short stories and verbal traditions of Alexandra Posey (Muscogee Nation), and has published essays on Ora Eddleman Reed (Cherokee identified), who was editor of an early territorial newspaper.
Alexia also produced and directed documentaries, including TransJourney, which was awarded the Audience Award at the Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival (2015). Her current work entails storytelling through script writing, where she collaborates with fellow writer Marianne Messina. Their stories highlight underrepresented characters, including women and LGBTQ+ identified characters.
Small Steps in Black Birkenstocks, Alexia’s first script, follows Kerri, a transgender naval scientist; Lorie, a nerdy widowed lesbian; Lori’s friend Cooper, a gay Black art professor; and Stephen, a self-proclaimed chick magnet, as they trip and tangle their way through dating, uprooting our sense of what love embodies and what love can bring. Small Steps was selected for Toronto’s Female Gaze Film Festival (2018) and awarded the James Seaver Award from the Rhode Island International Film Festival in 2019.
Alexia’s second script, Milkwood Manor, features nature lover Emily, who is driven to rescue monarch butterflies and feels threatened when her daughter insists that she move to Florida. Emily not only fights for the monarch’s habitat and her place at the manor but also for the attention of a handsome vet. Milkweed Manor was awarded the Romantic Comedy Award at Boston’s Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay and Music Festival (2022) and was a finalist in the Houston Comedy Film Festival (2020) and the Rhode Island International Film Festival (2021).
Currently Alexia is focusing on a TV pilot that features the “tea girls,” who gather regularly for salon-style discussion: a retired lesbian dean, a Black gay art professor, an angry songwriter and a dog-crazed nurse. She also continues to pursue her scholarly interests in queer film and theory and serves on the editorial board of InterAlia, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal on queer theory and literature.
Courses
Fall 2024 Courses
LAS E101-35 - FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LAS E101-35
FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: TF | 2:50 PM - 4:20 PMInstructor(s): Alexia KosmiderLocation(s): College Building, Room 434Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.
First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.
Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into designated section(s).
An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.
First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.
Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into designated section(s).
Major Requirement | BFA
Wintersession 2025 Courses
LAS E379-101 - QUEER FILM ASIAN AMERICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN QUEER FILM
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
FormatLecture
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LAS E379-101
QUEER FILM ASIAN AMERICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN QUEER FILM
Since the early Hollywood years, films have played a major role in the way American mainstream culture inscribes queerness: the many and diverse queer communities, identities, and experiences. This course begins with an examination of earlier representations of queerness in Hollywood films, tracing queer cinematic images throughout the early 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. We will screen queer films such as Nazimova's Salome (1922) and The Killing of Sister George (1968) to analyze their representations of queer identity and examine what they signify to us today. Our examination of queer film will address the following questions: What is gay or lesbian film? What is a queer film? What are the ways in which the discourses of race, gender, and sexuality are interrelated and deployed? The latter half of the course also will examine selected films and documentaries from the new emerging queer cinema and a selection of film shorts that are currently running in queer film festivals.
