MARIA PALLOTTA-CHIAROLLI
Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, Maria writes and researches on social justice, diversity and equity issues in education and health. Her primary areas of interest are ethnicity, gender and sexuality.
 
Maria is also an External Faculty Member of Saybrook Graduate Centre, San Francisco, and is the Honorary Patron of PFLAG Victoria in Australia.
 
Formerly a teacher for over a decade in a boys’ Catholic school in Adelaide as well as the Gender and Equity Officer for the Catholic Education Office in South Australia, Maria was responsible for writing, consulting and implementing the Gender & Equity Policy for all South Australian Catholic Schools (1993). Maria has also lectured and researched at the University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, University of Technology, Sydney, Macquarie University, NSW; and managed the research into culturally diverse men who have sex with men for the National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales.

Apart from academic chapters, research monographs and journal articles, her publications include:

• Someone You Know about a friend with AIDS (Wakefield Press, 1991; new edition, 2002);
• Girls Talk: Young Women Speak Their Hearts And Minds (Finch Publishing, 1998; second edition, 2006) which is a research-based collection of over 150  culturally and sexually diverse girls and young women’s art and writing exploring relationships, health and wellbeing issues;
• Tapestry (Random House, 1999), a biographical narrative on five generations of her Italian family, exploring shifting constructs of gender, sexuality and ethnic identity. Tapestry was short-listed for the NSW Premier’s Award in the Ethnic Affairs Commission category and in the Children’s Book Council Non-Fiction Award
• Boys’ Stuff: Talking About What Matters (Allen & Unwin, 2001). This involved research and collaboration with 250 boys from around Australia, and was co-researched and co-edited with Dr Wayne Martino. The book was shortlisted for four awards: a Western Australian Premier’s Award; the Australian Book Design Award; a Human Rights Award; and was Highly Commended in The Australian Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing. The book has also been listed in the Australian Centre for Youth Literature’s “150 Years, 150 Books: Victoria’s Most Treasured Books” list.
• So What’s A Boy? Issues of Masculinity and Schooling (Open University Press, 2003) involved research and collaboration with 300 boys from around Australia, and was co-researched and co-edited with Dr Wayne Martino.  It explores culturally and sexually diverse boys’, indigenous boys, and boys with disabilities in relation to education and health.
• When Our Children Come Out: how to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered young people (Finch Publishing, 2005) that presents examples of what has been done and can been done to overcome homophobia within families, schools and the wider community;
• "Being Normal is the Only Thing To Be": Young People’s Perspectives on Gender in  Schools (UNSW Press, 2005) co-written with Dr Wayne Martino, based on research with 1000 young people in Australian schools.
• Border Sexualities, Border Families (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming, 2007) that presents her research with bisexual students and multisexual families.

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