Sarah Nilsen

BIO

Sarah Nilsen is a Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Vermont. Sarah is the author of Projecting America: Film and Cultural Diplomacy at the Brussel’s World’s Fair of 1958 (McFarland, 2011), and co-editor of The Colorblind Screen: Television in Post-Racial America (NYU Press, 2014), The Myth of Colorblindness: Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema (Palgrave, 2019), White Supremacy and the American Media (Routledge, 2022), and Critical Race Theory and the American Media (Routledge, 2025). Sarah teaches classes on Disney studies, animal studies, environmental communication, and screenwriting, has written extensively on Walt Disney, and has appeared as a Disney historian in American Experience: Walt Disney (PBS, 2015), Behind the Magic: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (ABC, 2015), Autopsy: The Last Hours of Walt Disney (ITV, 2020), Mickey Mouse: The of a Mouse (Disney+, 2023), Walt Disney: Behind the Magic (Reelz, 2024), and How Disney Made America (History Channel, 2024). She is currently working on two book projects, No Animals Were Harmed: Censorship of Animal Cruelty in Hollywood Films, and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Animals, about animal ethics in the classic animated features of Walt Disney.  She has published articles and book chapters on race and ethnicity in film and television, Walt Disney history, and animal studies in film and television. Her soon to be released poetry and short prose collection, co-written with Lynn Parrish Sutton, Arctic Emeralds: Lois Crisler in Wild Alaska, captures the 1953 journey of the naturalist, Lois Crisler, and her wildlife photographer husband, Cris, who were sent on assignment by the Walt Disney Studio to film the migration of caribou herds in the wild tundra of the Brooks Range. 

Courses

• Development of  Motion Pictures I: Origin - 1930
• Development of Motion Picture II: 1930 - 1960
• Screenwriting I
• Seminar in Film and Television: Disney and Pixar
• History of Television
• Intro Special Topics in Film and Television: Walt Disney and American Culture
• Special Topics: Exploitation Cinema
• Intermediate Special Topics: Advanced Screenwriting
• Seminar: Animals in Film and Television
• Seminar: Nature Documentaries
• Seminar: Film and Television Celebrity Culture
• Seminar: Popular Music and Film
• Seminar: Critical Race Issues in TV
• History of Television
• Studies in Film/TV Genre: Teen Pics
• Studies in Film/TV Genre: Hip Hop Cult in Film & TV
• Film and Television Genre and Auteur
• Race and Ethnic in Literary Studies: D1 Race and Television
• Readings and Research
• Independent Study

Publications

Sarah Nilsen Publications (DOCX)

Awards and Achievements

• University of Vermont, Humanities Center Summer Research Award, Summer 2025, for research at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library.
• University of Vermont Faculty Development Grant for the Arts, Summer 2022, for the collection of illustrations and photographs by Lois Crisler for the poetry collection, Arctic Emeralds (2026).
• University of Vermont, Humanities Center and OVPR Summer Research Award, Summer 2018, for research at the University of Washington and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
• University of Vermont, Small Grant Research Award, Summer 2017: Research at the Walt Disney Archive, Burbank, CA.
• University of Vermont, Small Grant Research Award, Spring 2015: Research at The Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, NY.
• University of Vermont, Lattie Coors Research Assistantship Award, Spring 2013: Research on the Disney Princess franchise.
• University of Vermont, Faculty Research Support Award, Fall and Spring 2011/12.
• University of Vermont, Faculty Development Grant, Fall 2005: Research on the plans by the U.S. State Department for the American Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair of 1958.
• Fulbright Scholarship, 1998/9: The Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program, research on American pavilions at Canadian international expositions.
• Vander Putten International Fund, Fall 2002: Funding to meet with British media organizations and institutions in order to develop a summer media studies program.
• University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Faculty Development Grant, Summer 2001: Research on the introduction of film technologies at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.
• University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Faculty/Student Collaborative Grant, 2000 and 2001: Research on Pare Lorentz’s Nuremberg Trial film and Vera Caspary’s filmic adaptation of Laura.
• Bernard Kantor Scholarship, 1998/9: University of Southern California.
• Cinema Circulus Scholarship, 1997/8: University of Southern California.