ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

She/Her

Director at It's Time We Talked - Young people, pornography and sexuality.

Maree is the co-founder and Director of the Australian violence prevention project, It’s time we talked (formerly Reality & Risk: Pornography, young people and sexuality). She has worked with young people for over 25 years. During this time she has developed and delivered programs focusing on sexual violence prevention, sexual diversity, pornography, sexting, and the prevention of sexually transmissible infections. As apart of her work exploring the impacts of pornography on young people, she also co-Produced and co-Directed the documentary films Love and Sex in an Age of Pornography, broadcast on SBS in Australia and in fourteen other countries, and The Porn Factor, broadcast on SBS. As well as various films and resources, she has spent years developing and authoring In The Picture – a resource to support secondary schools to address the influence of explicit sexual imagery.

She/Her

Academic at the Australian Catholic University -

 Religion, Gender & Culture

Dr Farjana Mahbuba is a researcher and sessional academic based at the Australian Catholic University, working across the National School of Arts and Education and the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy. Her interdisciplinary work explores the entanglements of religion, gender, culture, and migration in shaping women’s experiences of family financial violence. Her current PhD research examines spousal financial abuse among Bangladeshi Muslim migrant women in Australia. Farjana holds a previous PhD in sociology of religion and gender from Western Sydney University. She has taught widely in the areas of social sciences, humanities, religion, and gender studies across multiple Australian institutions. Her research is deeply informed by her background as a woman of colour, her diasporic experience, and her commitment to scholarship that centres marginalised voices and lived experiences.  

She/Her

Professor of Social Work at Melbourne University -

Violence Against Women

Sarah is Professor of Social Work at Melbourne University and Chief Investigator in the Centre for Excellence for The Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW). 

Prior to academia, Sarah practiced social work in the field of domestic violence.  She has published on violence against women and social work practice. Her particular research projects explore the impact of domestic violence on women's citizenship, service provision in the field of domestic violence, and engaging men to address domestic violence. More recently she is researching religion and domestic violence. - exploring how religious contexts shape understandings of domestic and sexual violence as well as prevention, responses, and healing.