Alli Prior

Biography

While I have always experienced homophobic reactions to the articulations of my lesbianism, ironically, as a student studying on a small and regional campus with a particularly homophobic and lesbophobic culture, these types of reactions have been even more extreme.

Because I used every opportunity available to weave themes relevant to sexual minorities into every assignment or class presentation, many including lecturers, expressed the attitude that I was pushing a personal agenda that had no place at university. 

Much of my time on this campus has been isolating and distressing and I've struggled to find a place in which the fragmentation of my various selves felt validated and undiminished. Because of this, I made the decision to initiate a Queer Collective on campus and approached the Student Union to create the first ever office-bearing position of Sexuality Officer. In this way I could initiate a collective where, in collaboration with other Queer students, we'd be able to transform our personal experiences into political actions.

I've learned much and gained much support for my endevours from staff as well as students. These days I'm being sought out to present guest lectures on issues of sexuality and discrimination. Searching for creative ways of giving voice to the lived experiences of those whose lives are mediated by social injustice and oppression and learning the importance of relinquishing academic viewpoints in favour of more inclusive modes of interpretation and analysis have been invaluable lessons and ones I hope to continue utilising in my work.

Its not enough to 'make do' with what we already have. We need to continue the task of creating new contexts within the structures that exist, and which continue to confine and repress our struggle for cultural and political recognition and self-representation.

Organizations & Institutions

University of Newcastle, Central Coast Campus. Australia

Fields of Study

Published and Unpublished Works

Self-directed groupwork with Lesbian, Gay and Queer Students on the Central Coast Campus - Honours thesis. 2000

Queer Activism on a small and regional campus - conference paper 2000

Current Projects

Currently a PhD candidate. Working title of dissertation: Eves in Eden. The herstory and evolution of Lesbian separatist communities in New South Wales, Australia.

The focus of my research is on survival and resistance in the context of wimmin's sexuality, oppression and politically mobile consciousness and the ways in which these were translated onto the land. As such this dissertation intends to explore and chronicle the particular conditions and various contexts that shaped the foundations of three interconnected Lesbian separatist communities. What were the political ideologies that shaped wimmin's choices and strategies? Was living on the land seen as a lifestyle alternative or a conscious political declaration of autonomy and resistance? In what ways were the original visions challenged and negotiated by wimmin who came onto the land, and to what degree do these early ideals still exist?

My approach will be multi-faceted: a combination of oral herstory interviews, archival research, comparative studies and some participant observation. My aim is to document and return this important piece of herstory back to the wimmin who own it, while at the same time furthering the analytical perspectives of scholarship on Lesbian lives and cultures.  

Please contact me if you have any information or herstory you would like to share with me regarding Lesbian separatist communities.

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