Sexuality and Gender

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Ellen's first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award. Throat, Ellen's highly anticipated second collection of poetry, was published in 2020. In 2021 they are the editor of the anthology Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now.

Rae White is a non-binary transgender writer, educator and zine maker. Their poetry collection Milk Teeth (UQP 2018) won the 2017 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and commended in the 2018 Anne Elder Award. Rae’s second poetry collection Exactly As I Am was published in 2022 by UQP. Rae has two poems published in Nothing to Hide – Voices of Trans and Gender-Diverse Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2022). Rae’s Bitsy poem-game ‘stand up’ won the Woollahra Digital Literary Award for Digital Innovation. Rae is the editor of #EnbyLife, a journal for non-binary and gender diverse creatives. They are the Events and Marketing Manager at Queensland Poetry.

Fiona Kelly McGregor’s most recent novel Iris, is shortlisted for the NSW Premiers Awards and was longlisted for the Stella Prize. Previously, Indelible ink won Age Book of the Year and was published in French by Actes-Sud. Non fiction includes essay collection Buried not dead, shortlisted for the VPLA, genre-busting photoessay A novel idea, Strange museums, a travel memoir of a performance art tour through Poland, and the underground classic chemical palace. Short story collection Suck my toes/Dirt won the Steele Rudd Award. McGregor has decades’ experience as a performance artist as well as curator of events, and writes for The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, Art Monthly and more.

Raewyn Connell is professor emerita, University of Sydney and life member of the National Tertiary Education Union. She has taught in several countries and is a widely cited researcher on questions of social justice, knowledge, and social change. Connell is the current holder of the International Sociological Association's quadrennial award for Excellence in Research and Practice. Her works include The Good University, Southern Theory, Masculinities, Gender & Power, Ruling Class Ruling Culture and Making the Difference. Her work has been translated into twenty-four languages. Connell has been active in the labour movement, and in work for gender equality and for peace.

Maureen Engel is a Lecturer in Digital Culture at the University of Queensland. She played high school soccer against Charmaine Hooper, which only extreme soccer nerds will understand. She was overjoyed to be among the 49,000+ fans who got to witness the Matildas' shootout victory over France.