Damien J O'Meara

Damien J O’Meara is an academic, communications strategist and professional writer.

Damien is currently completing his PhD in media and communications at Swinburne University of Technology, researching Australian television production culture and its intersection with onscreen LGBTIQ+ representations in Australian television drama.

Damien teaches media studies, screen studies and communications at Swinburne Online Learning, where he has worked as a sessional tutor since 2017. He is also working as a research assistant on the Australian Children’s Television Cultures research project. ACTC investigates the role of Aussie kids’ TV in our lives.

Damien holds a Master of Arts (Writing) from Swinburne University of Technology (in Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Communications (PR) from Griffith University (in Brisbane). His study has always centred on queer representation and understanding through media, fuelled by his own experience of growing up queer and isolated in regional Victoria.

In his spare time, Damien and his friend Natasha record the Lowbrow Lowdown, a podcast that explores how a cultural moment manifests in pop, trash and pulp culture. Season 1 is all about self-published literature of the coronavirus. Season 2 (coming soon) is unpacking the undead, analysing the zombie sub-genre and how it reflects social and cultural anxieties at the time it is made.

Damien occasionally adds an episode to his other podcast, Camp Scary and Squee – where guests bring a horror film for discussion, dissection and classification on the Camp-Scary Scale.