Sonja Hammer is the producer and presenter for the JOY94.9 radio shows Sci-fi and Squeam and The Second Breakfast. She is the coordinator of the fan and advocacy group Queer Geeks of Oz. Sonja organised an all-female geek panel and podcast called: Geek Girl Speak talking about women and girls in nerd culture. Sonja was one of the panellists at the Midsumma 2015 Cartooning with Pride event to discuss issues facing the GLBTI comic book industry in Australia. At this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival she put together a discussion about the representation of queer women characters in horror films called Sapphic Suckers. Sonja’s most recent project is the co-development of a zine called Quartz (Queer Arts Zine) to further promote GLBTI talent in our community.

A fine example of Sonja Hammer’s work in the past year has been her progress with the group Queer Geeks of Oz. This year’s Oz Comic-Con in Melbourne marked the 3rd time Queer Geeks of Oz have been able to host a panel session to talk about GLBTI representation, this year focusing upon video games and comic books. Sonja has also built a strong relationship with other international groups that organise specific GLBTI comic book and popular culture conventions in both New York (GeeksOUT!) and Los Angeles (BentCON and GaymerX) and wishes to build upon these relationships to further the work Queer Geeks of Oz can achieve, including a dream to take the very 1st Aussie queer nerd contingent to the N.Y Comic Con and to Flame CON in the U.S in 2016.

Her radio show, Sci-fi and Squeam, covers many topics of geek culture from video games, film and television, comic books, zines and novels. Sonja tirelessly interviews both local and international identities in these fields, bringing to listeners up to date content to both educate and entertain. She continues through social media to promote the efforts of her guests, and is proud to include local groups with Queer Geek of Oz activities, such as The Melbourne LGBT Comic Book Group.

Sonja has a massive passion for the Horror film genre ( hence ‘The Squeamer’) and over the years has supported and promoted Women In Horror Month events held here in February of every year in Melbourne and whenever possible held special interviews and show episodes highlighting the need for advocacy and promotion of female film makers and female led events such as the Stranger with My Face film festival in Tasmania.

Check out her Horror podcasts here:
http://joy.org.au/scifiandsqueam/?s=women+in+horror+month

Here is a Vimeo of her Sapphic Suckers MQFF presentation:

The amazing Queer Geeks of Oz!:
http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/queers-get-their-geek-on/111087
http://www.samesame.com.au/news/10323/Queer-Geeks-of-Oz-for-Armageddon-expo