Newton, JulianneBanks, Beck2022-10-262022-10-262022-10-26https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27756Using ethnographic methods, this dissertation explores transgender media makers and their works in Central Appalachia. It employs audience studies, queer/trans migration, and queer rurality to understand the drive of these makers and their audiences. A documentary tour, an Instagram account/zine, and a filmmaker provide the means to further understand trans life in the region and what compels the makers to do their work. Through this media making activism, a new migration theory, “actualization through activism,” and a new area of study, “trans rurality,” are developed and proposed.en-USAll Rights Reserved.activismAppalachiamedia productionmigration theoryruraltransgenderElectronic Thesis or Dissertation