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Rainbow Research Fellowship
About the Fellowship
The Rainbow Research Fellowship supports the research, exploration, and creation of new
knowledge about Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ / Queer histories and communities using
the John Oxley Library and State Library collections and resources
The fellowship recipient will receive a $20,000 stipend, a shared workspace in the Neil Roberts Research Lounge, and special access to State Library’s extensive collections and expert staff. The Honorary Fellowship offers the same benefits, excluding the stipend.
The Rainbow Research Fellowship is generously supported by Lyn Valentine.
2026 Rainbow Research Fellowship
The 2026 Rainbow Research Fellowship was awarded to Monika O'Hanlon for her project, 'Out of the Archives'.
'Out of the Archives' is a mixed-media documentary podcast series that brings Queensland’s queer history to life – one collectionitem at a time. Each episode begins with a single artefact from John Oxley Library – photograph, protest flyer, costume, or love letter – and unpacks the story behind it, exploring what it reveals about LGBTQIA+ life and what remains hidden.
Blending interviews, narration, archival research, and ambient sound, the series will also include short-form video content for social media to reach wider audiences. 'Out of the Archives' transforms static objects into living stories, inviting deeper public engagement with State Library collections.
2026 Rainbow Research Fellow Monika O'Hanlon with fellowship donors Lyn Valentine and Brenda Parkes.
2025 Rainbow Research Fellowship
The 2025 Rainbow Research Fellowship was awarded to Dr Marion Stell and Professor Celmara Pocock for their project, 'Queering the Lens: Cross-Dressing in Family Photograph Albums'.
Buried deep within family photograph albums of the twentieth century lies a hidden collection capturing people joyfully engaging in the practice of cross-dressing. Often associated with celebratory events, these images depict holiday camps, country dances, musical and theatrical performances, hula nights, mock weddings, guesthouse parties, military barracks, and even charity cricket matches. This activity was widespread, popular, and socially embraced, performed across both city and rural settings as light-hearted, socially acceptable entertainment, often staged as photogenic occasions.
Despite its popularity, many instances of this practice have remained unseen, uncaptioned, uncatalogued, or overlooked. This project will not only uncover previously unrecorded images but will also provide the library with language, metadata standards, and terminology to catalogue and recognise these images as an integral part of Queensland's and Australia’s Queer history.
Blogs:
Queensland LGBTQIA+ collection highlights
Rainbow Research Fellows' blogs
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 licences 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.
Some attention has been 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:
2024 Rainbow Research Fellow Dr Heather Anderson.
Research Reveals 2025 by Dr Anderson: 'Radio Rebels: Highlighting the Contributions of Women, Trans, and Non-Binary People to the History of Queensland Community Radio'.
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:
2022 Rainbow Research Fellow Bianca Martin.
Research Reveals 2024 featuring Bianca Martin's talk (55:21).
2022 Queensland Memory Fellows. A year in review.
Bianca Martin talking about her Rainbow Research Fellowship project.