Dr Liz Conor
Fellow, Cultural Studies
Biography
Liz completed her PhD in the Women's Studies Program and won the Convocation Prize for Highest Achievement in the School of Humanities at La Trobe University in 1991. She has published widely as a commentator and a community activist, and was editor of Metro and Australian Screen Education magazines. She is currently an Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellow in the School of Culture and Communication with Cultural Studies.
Current research
Aboriginal femininity and modern visual identity; the 'Native Belle' and primitive exoticism; the Piccaninny and Aboriginal maternity, Mission and station Aboriginal women and domesticity.
Teaching and research appointments
- Tutor in Contemporary Feminist Thought, Women's Studies, La Trobe University, 1993
- Lecturer / Tutor in Film and Film Theory Women's Studies, Faculty of Arts Australian, 1993
- Research assistant to Prof Marilyn Lake, School of History, La Trobe University. Emergence of Australian Beauty Competitions, 1890-1930
- Research Assistant to 1996 Prof Ann Curthoys (School of History, ANU) on an ARC funded research project on the History of the Australian Women's Movement, 1967-1988. 1996
- Co-Convenor with Dr. Ruth Ford and Dr Joy Damousi of the 'Flapper-Trappers and Modish Maids': Women and Modernity Conference. 4-5 December 2000. Whitely College, Melbourne University
Publications
Books
The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in the 1920s. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2004.
Book chapters
- 'Kate Fischer, John Howard and Shrinking Voices in the Field of Social Action'. Intellectuals and Publics: Essays on Cultural Theory and Practice . Eds. Paollo Bartolini, Karen Lynch and Shane Kendal. School of English: La Trobe University, 1997. 109-117.
- 'The Flapper's Ontological Ambivalence: Prosthetic Visualities, the Feminine and Modernity'. Dealing with Difference: Essays in Gender Culture and History. Eds. Patricia Grimshaw and Dianne Kirkby. History Department: University of Melbourne, 1997. 178-97. Republished electronically through RMIT Publishing.
- 'The Flapper in the Heterosexual Scene'. New Talents: Jumping the Queue. Eds. Gabriella T. Espak, Scott Fatnowna and Denise Woods. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2002. 43-58.
- 'Blackfella Missus Too Much Proud: Visual Identity, Femininity and Race in the Australian Modern Scene'. The Modern Girl and Cultures of Consumption . Eds Tani E Barlow, Madeleine Yue Dong, Uta G. Poiger, Priti Ramamurthy, Lynn M. Thomas, Alys Eve Weinbaum. Duke University Press [Forthcoming 2005]
Journal articles
- 'The Beauty Contestant in the Photographic Scene'. Journal of Australian Studies. 71 (2001): 33-44.
- 'The City Girl: Appearing in the Modern Scene'. Lilith. 11 (2002): 53-72.
- ' "This Striking Ornament Of Nature": the 'Native Belle' in the Australian Colonial Visual Scene', Feminist Theory Special Issue. 7:2 Eds. Claire Colebrook and Rita Felski [Forthcoming 2006]
Essays
- 'Aversion and Cowboys and Indians in the Porn Debate'. Scarlet Woman. 27 (Spring 1992).
- 'Naivety in Nudity'. Metro. 106. 1996.
- 'The Human Tamagocchi'. Arena Magazine. 31 (Oct-Nov 1997): 45.
- 'Censoring the Female Body: Why the Pornographic Imagination Would Do It'. Arena Magazine. (Jun-Jul 1998): 24-5.
- 'The Explicit and the Illicit'. Arena Magazine. (Aug-Sept 1998): 11.
- 'The Underside of Fashion'. Arena Magazine. 44 (1999).
- 'Nicole Kidman and the Commodity Star'. Metro. 127-128 (June 2000): 98.
- 'Mourning Sickness: Commemorating September 11 and Grief Production'. Arena Magazine. 61 (2002).
- 'In a League of Their Own'. Overland. 176 (Spring 2004): 75-6.
- 'Mothers of Intervention'. In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself . Ed. Marlow Peerse Weaver. New Carolina: M.W. Enterprises, 2005. 76.
Recent commentary and reviews
- 'Curse of the Bleeding Obvious'. The Australian, March 1999.
- 'Witness Without Protection'. The Sunday Age, July 1999.
- 'The Modern Man and his Myths'. The Sunday Age, September 1999.
- 'Katy, my wild Bohemian Sister, was now a Nun', The Age, May 2000.
- 'Slow Down, Get Pregnant?' Sydney's Child, September, 2002.
- 'Toy Story'. Sydney's Child , December, 2002, 38.
- 'Anne Summers, The End of Equality, 'The Baby Bar'. Australian Book Review. 259 (April 2004): 58.
- 'Blurring Boundaries', Barbara Creed, Media Matrix. Australian Book Review. 261 (May 2004): 32.
- 'The Spectacle this Election Does Not Need to Have', Sydney Morning Herald. 7 October, 2004.
- 'Letters to the Daughters of Feminism'. The Age, 26 November, 2004.
- 'If Only She Were Easier to Dress' (article on Barbie), Education Age, The Age. 7 February, 2005.
- 'The Hijab Means Different Things to Westerners and Muslims'. Opinion Article, The Age, 9 September 2005.
- 'Melbourne is Unpredictable'. Paper and panel discussion, Melbourne Writers' Festival, 27 August 2005.