Liz Conor

Beginning at La Trobe University with the Rape Action Collective in 1988, Dr Liz Conor has from her undergraduate years been a community activist, founding and convening campaigns on the portrayal of rape in the media, maternity leave, native title, along with three theatre troupes that have gained international attention. Her campaigns include: the Coalition Against Sexual Violence Propaganda (1990) on media portrayal of sexual violence, the Stick with Wik (1997) campaign on Native Title, the Mothers of Intervention (2000) campaign on Maternity Leave, and the guerrilla theatre troupe The John Howard Ladies' Auxiliary Fanclub (with Zelda Da, 1996) and the Climate Guardians (with Deborah Hart, 2012). She is working on a new troupe of Cigarette Girls who try to sell stranded assets called The Coalettes.

Liz’s activism has been informed by her research into historical mediascapes and the spectacle of women and Aboriginal women within those contingent fields of vision. She has synthesised these understandings into a committed academic/activist praxis that shapes her research questions and her campaign media strategising.

Liz has also been a Senate Candidate for Australian Greens Victoria in three federal elections; Deputy Lord Mayoral candidate for Melbourne City Council; Convenor, Women's Impact and Assessment Group, Australian Greens Victoria and Convenor, Indigenous Issues Working Group, Australian Greens Victoria. She is also in demand as a public speaker, addressing rallies such as Reclaim the Night, public meetings, conferences, writers’ festivals, screening panels, schools, launches, benefit gigs, pub panels, fundraisers and AGMs.

She is regularly interviewed by media and has been a guest with Jon Faine, Patricia Karvelas, Wendy Harmer, Louise Saunders, Cassie McCullagh, Phillip Adams, Ramona Koval, Amy McQuire, Daniel Browning, Michael Pavlich, Caroline Wilson, Terry Laidler, John Hindle, Brett Macleod, Sandy McCutcheons, Julie McCrossin. Additionally, Liz was a long-term media commentator on 'Sistermatic', 3CR and an occasional programmer and presenter with 3CR on RadioMama.

Liz maintains a column at New Matilda and has published more than 60 op-eds and essays in titles such as Meanjin, The Saturday Paper, The Conversation, The Age, the Drum, Crikey, Overland. Her very first publication was in Rabelais, the feminist student newspaper, while an undergraduate at La Trobe in 1989.

In recognition of her early campaigns and media advocacy, she was awarded in 1991 the Pauline Toner Award for Social Services by La Trobe’s then Vice-Chancellor.

Liz’s blog has been archived by the National Library of Australia.