Past Rainbow Research Fellows

The 2024 Rainbow Research Fellowship was awarded to Associate Professor, Heather Anderson for her project, Radio rebels: highlighting the contributions of women, trans and non-binary people to the history of Queensland community radio. 

Queensland played an important role in the establishment of Australian community radio with Meanjin/Brisbane community station 4ZZZ awarded one of the first licenses in the country. Lobbying not only locally, but for a nationally legislated community radio sector, the founding members of 4ZZZ paved the way for communities across the state to establish their own stations. There has been some attention paid to documenting the establishment of community radio in Queensland, much through the story of 4ZZZ. Less apparent in this history are the voices of women, trans and non-binary people, whose invaluable community radio advocacy was - and still is - often ‘behind the scenes’. Heather's project seeks to discover and share the untold stories of the women, trans and non-binary people of Queensland community radio, in the lead up to Radio 4ZZZ's 50-year anniversary. 

This fellowship was generously supported by Norman H Johns Trust.

Blogs:

• Finding feminist voices in the early years of Queensland community radio
• Celebrating Dykes on Mykes (4ZZZ) on International Lesbian Day

The inaugural Rainbow Research Fellowship was awarded to Bianca Martin for her project, LGBTQIA+ Zines in Contemporary Queensland.

Bianca's project will use the existing zine collection in the John Oxley Library and build upon her own personal zine collection and zine maker connections for further archival information and interviews. Bianca aims to establish an abridged contemporary history of LGBTQIA+ zines in Queensland. Primarily focussing on contemporary (post 2000s) zines by LGBTQIA+ zine makers, Bianca will aim to produce an academic journal article, a piece of creative nonfiction, and a creative response zine with the intention of locating common themes related to implicit or explicit community building within zine making. The project aims to uncover stories of lives that may not be so well documented, overlooked, silenced, or erased and will establish an alternative history of self-publishing in opposition to mainstream media.

Blogs:

• Situating Zines as historical documents

• Reading Community within Queer Collaborative Zines

• Self-Publishing in Queensland’s Queer Communities