Tianna Killoran

Tianna Killoran is an Associate Lecturer in Humanities and Social Sciences based on the Townsville, Bebegu Yumba campus. Tianna has a Bachelor of Education – Bachelor of Arts (Hons) (2017) and a PhD in History (2023) from James Cook University.

Tianna’s primary research focus is on the history of Japanese migrant communities in north Queensland during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her PhD thesis, entitled The Near North and the Far North: The Nikkei Community in North Queensland, 1885-1946, focused on the history of the Nikkei community in north Queensland. Tianna’s research highlights the significance of north Queensland within Japanese-Australian relations during this period and progresses northern Australia’s geopolitical and diplomatic importance during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

Currently she is researching the history of civilian Japanese internment in Australia and Canada, as well as the history of Japanese migrant women in Australia.

Her research has been published in History Australia and Lilith: A Feminist History Journal. She was a National Library of Australia Summer Scholar in 2020, and a 2023 Scholar in Residence for the Past Wrong, Future Choices research project in Victoria, Canada. Tianna is also a member of the Lilith Editorial Collective and in 2023 was awarded the Vera Mackie Prize for Best Blog for her article 'Japanese Businesswomen in North Queensland’s Commercial Landscape, 1887-1941.'