Dr. Zahra Stardust
she/her
Dr. Zahra Stardust is a white, queer, femme writer, scholar, and artist working on the stolen lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera people in Magandjin (Brisbane, Australia). Her work specalises in sexual media and sexual health, focusing on the politics of online sexual content moderation and the design and governance of sextech. Her book Indie Porn: Revolution, Regulation and Resistance (Duke University Press, 2024) investigated how governments and digital platforms both foreclose and produce conditions for more radical pornographies. With an international research portfolio spanning sex worker activism, LGBTQ+ health and criminalisation, she has published about sexual racism, trans prison policies, policing practices, surveillance capitalism and algorithmic whorephobia. She is a Co-Chair of the World Association for Sexual Health’s Sexual Rights Committee and sits on the World Health Organisation’s Sexual Health and Wellbeing Advisory Group.