Dear ~~first_name~~,
With only four sleeps to go until our TASA 2025 Conference, excitement is well and truly building! As we count down, we’re also entering our Thematic Group convener changeover period. Many groups are seeking new conveners for the November 2025 – November 2027 term, so if you’re interested in taking on a leadership role, please get in touch with our Thematic Groups Portfolio Leader, Naomi Smith.
This week’s newsletter also includes our usual round-up of member publications, notices, events (full list of 2026 seminars hosted by the Newcastle Youth Studies Centre), and opportunities. Enjoy the read!
Sally, Penny and Ali
TASA Team
| We extend a warm congratulations to fellow member Dan Woodman who has been welcomed as a new member to the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts, commencing in 2026.
| This week we are delighted to welcome three new members to our community; Alexis Josephson-Swoboda, Shay Johnston & Jessica Wright. (names to be added). We look forward to your contributions and involvement in the year ahead. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to all members who have renewed their membership—your continued support of the discipline and the association is greatly appreciated.
| | TASA 2025 Conference Program
You can search by day, track (select The Australian Sociological Association), thematic group, workshop, social function, or keynote, and even download a personalised program containing only the sessions you wish to attend.
You can access the program here. | | | | TASA PG Reading Group: The Sociology of Nothing
Join us on Tuesday 9th December at 10am (AEDT) for the final 2025 Postgraduate Reading Group as we explore the sociology of nothing—an exciting and elusive emerging concept that examines absence, silence, and the unmarked in social life. We’ll be discussing Scott’s (2018) A Sociology of Nothing: Understanding the Unmarked.
Don’t miss this thought-provoking session!
| | | A fellow member is looking for work. They were a senior lecturer and taught online at masters level for many years. They have a PhD, MBA and a Grad Cert in online learning.
They currently teach sociology to two classes each week at the University of the Third Age and their classes have been booked out for over six years. They won teaching awards at UNSW and allied universities.
The member is looking for online work and any casual jobs. They live on Bribie Island so can travel to Brisbane and/or the Sunshine Coast.
They are looking for work in a team, tutoring or grading assignments.
If you have an opportunity for this member, can you please email Sally in TASA Admin.
| Assistant or Associate Professor
Hong Kong Shue Yan University
The Department of Sociology is inviting applications for a full-time Assistant or Associate Professor. Rank will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Candidates should have a doctorate degree in sociology, anthropology or related disciplines, and demonstrate the ability to effectively teach at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels while pursuing an active research agenda.
| Browne, Josephine. 2025. "Australian dystopia and the (m)anthropocene: future-thinking men and masculinities in The Animals in That Country (McKay 2020) and Juice (Winton 2024)," NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2025.2575242. [full access].
Morris A. Health and inequality in Australia. The Economic and Labour Relations Review. Published online 2025:1-23. doi:10.1017/elr.2025.10043 [full access].
| | Sociologists out West - end of year gathering
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In case you are not aware, the Sociology Out West (SOW) group is for everyone in Western Australia (whether residing or visiting) associated with sociology. | | | Introducing Special Sections
Following the recent launch of a new paper type for Journal of Sociology, Teaching Notes, the JoS team are launching a new feature called Special Sections. They invite proposals at any time for thematic sections that consist of three or four standard 8,000 word papers, framed with a 4,000 word introduction. This will be an ideal format for developing and publishing outcomes from, for instance, a conference panel, a smaller research network, or papers in conversation around a hot topic. Special Sections are designed to be a smaller, more manageable version of a special issue and will feature in standard issues along with regular papers.
If you would like to pitch a special section, please write firstly to our Managing Editor, Dr Amy Vanderharst.
| The latest special issue of the Journal of Sociology explores ‘Equity in the creative industries’ in the context of a changing employment landscape in Australia. Inequality is central to understanding the social consequences and distribution of cultural work. The COVID-19 pandemic, rise of digital cultural production, growth of media sharing platforms, and instability of changes in government (and policy) have both disrupted and re-organised cultural work. The collection of articles aims to develop debate on competing imaginaries of the lived experiences of workers, and to shed light on the struggle and complexities of contemporary creative labour.
All articles have been published on open access and are available here.
| Other Events, News & Opportunities
| New: Newcastle Youth Studies Centre (NYSC) 2026 Online Seminar Series
The full 2026 program for the Newcastle Youth Studies Centre’s online seminar series is now out (see below), you can check out each seminar, and register for them, at the NYSC Eventbrite page here.
- Wed Feb 11, 3pm: ‘Algorithmic Dwelling’ with Roger Burrows (University of Bristol), Lina Przhedetsky (UniMelb) and Sophia Maalsen (USyd)
- Wed March 4, 2pm: ‘The Debt Cycle’ with Sam Kirwan (University of Bristol)
- Wed March 11, 3pm: ‘Class and Friendship’ with Rose Butler (Deakin) and Sam Friedman (LSE)
- Tuesday March 17, 2pm: ‘Born to Rule’ with Sam Friedman (LSE)
- Wed April 8, 3pm: ‘Gambling and the Financialisation of Everyday Life’ with Aino Sumi (ANU), Alex Russell (CQU) and Sam Kirwan (University of Bristol)
- Wed May 13, 3pm: ‘Maternal Secrets: Shame, Silence, and the Materiality of Mothering’ with Giverny Lewis (University of Newcastle), Eva Neely (Victoria University, NZ) and Briony Lipton (UNSW)
- Wed June 17, 6pm: ‘From Resisting AI to Decomputing’ with Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths)
- Wed July 22, 3pm: ‘Scholarship Disabled: Crip research, crip scholars’ with Peta Cook (UTAS), Elizabeth Humphrys (UTS) and Nicole Asquith (QUT)
- Wednesday August 19, 3pm: ‘Fintech Futures: Young People, Fintech Use and Future Financial Security’ with Newcastle Youth Studies Centre
- Wednesday September 16, 3pm: ‘Lived Experiences of LGBTQ+ Religious Youth in a hostile policy landscape: Digital Media, Wellbeing, and Visual Methods’ with Anna Hickey-Moody (Maynooth), James Gardiner (RMIT) and Taghreed Al-Deen (La Trobe)
- Wednesday October 14, 3pm: ‘Youth Side-Hustles: Entrepreneurship and Employment in Enterprise Culture’ with David Farrugia (Deakin), Brendah Churchill (UniMelb), Stephanie Patouras (Deakin) and Kim Allen (University of Leeds)
- Wednesday November 18, 3pm: ‘Intergenerational Dialogues and Activism’ with Newcastle Youth Studies Centre
Note, you can watch the full 2025 recordings at the NYSC's YouTube playlist here.
| The Sorrento Creative Writing Prize
The Prize celebrates the annual Sorrento Writers Festival and its mission to bring writers and readers together.
The winner will receive $5,000 and their writing featured at the 2026 Sorrento Writers Festival and at www.writing.org.au
| SHAPE Futures, a network for EMCRs in the HASS disciplines, is holding its 2025 Annual Convention on Thursday 27th November from 230-5pm at the Jim Potter Room at The University of Melbourne.
The event, which is on the topic of 'Navigating the Funding Landscape' is occurring at the same time and in the same location as our TASA Conference.
The event is completely FREE and involves a catered networking function. It is a great opportunity to mingle with other EMCRs in the HASS disciplines.
Further details are provided in the flyer on the left and you can register here.
| | | Academic Freedom: The right to enquire?
University of Melbourne
25th November, 8:30am - 6pm
Earnest discussions about academic freedom are often prompted by events outside the academy. The McCarthy era “loyalty oaths” imposed in some 1950s US universities provide one example. More recently, there have been some high-profile cases of alleged deplatforming accompanied by persistent populist anxieties about speech codes, cancel culture, and safe spaces.
As Robert French AC has recognised, it is important, in thinking about academic freedom, to distinguish what it permits (and in turn requires) from more general notions of freedom of speech. Academic freedom is recommended on the grounds that it is crucial to effective knowledge-making and, unlike unfettered freedom of speech, is practised subject to the norms and values of scholarly and scientific enquiry.
This symposium seeks to explore these enduring as well as pressing themes, questions and dilemmas.
| Edited Volume - call for contributions
| Constructive Alcohol: production, consumption, everything else (working title)
The book will be a response to Mary Douglas’ ground-breaking work Constructive Drinking (1987). Published nearly 40 years ago, Constructive Drinking continues to be a touchstone for research that foundationally acknowledges that ‘drinking’ is always socio-culturally constructed, historically contingent and morally relativistic. Douglas and her contributors firmly rejected approaches that assumptively problematized or pathologized alcohol and instead critically analysed benefits ascribed to alcohol in different social settings. Moreover, our proposed book comes at a time when alcohol is subject to multiple criticisms and challenges, not least of which are the World Health Organisation’s repeated declarations that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption; the impacts of climate change; and declining consumption globally.
| Mark Davis' Thesis 11 Annual Lecture - Relational Sociology in Action! Zelizer and the Climate Crisis
Thursday November 27th, 6-8pm AEDT
Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture, Melbourne
Prof Mark Davis joins TASA 2025for the Thesis Eleven annual lecture to explore sociology’s role in addressing challenges like the climate crisis.
| New: Children’s rights under pressure in a digital world
ICA Pre-conference 2026
BSA Annual Conference 2026: 75 Years of Sociology
University of Edinburgh, UK
8-10 April 2026
Predoctoral Preconference
Work and Family Researchers Network Conference
The Predoctoral Preconference will provide workshops intended to help graduate students form meaningful connections with diverse scholars, learn about publication strategies, as well as how to engage with stakeholders such as organisational leaders or policy advocates.
| | Reimagining Boyhood: Addressing the wellbeing of boys and young men through education
21 January, 2026
The University of Queensland
Key Speakers include fellow member Garth Stahl.
This event brings together leading international voices, cutting-edge research, and the shared commitment of schools and educators to shape the future of boys’ education, exploring identity, wellbeing, belonging, and learning in boyhood. With keynote speakers, expert panels, and interactive workshops, this full-day program offers evidence-based insights and practical strategies that educators can apply directly.
| | | Special Issues - call for submissions
| Professionalism beyond the Global North: A Space for New Theoretical Developments
Current Sociology Monographs
This issue invites contributions that advance sociological research on professions, professionalism, and expertise in the Global South—broadly defined to include Africa, Asia, Latin America, Southern and Eastern Europe, and Oceania
The Normative Turn in Sociology. Opening the Black Box
Sociology’s special issue hopes to lay the groundwork for a sociology of normativity; that is, a form of sociology (be it “critical” or otherwise) which is expressly normative. Editors are looking for contributions, theoretical and/or empirical, that engage with the question of normativity in sociology.
Paper submission deadline: 22 January. Read on...
Earning while Learning: Experiences, patterns and the political economy of working students
Work, Employment and Society’s new special issue aims to interrogate and fundamentally reconceptualize the relationship between earning and learning, bringing together different disciplinary approaches to interrogate student work and the global political economy that shapes it.
Paper submission deadline: 27 February. Read on...
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
The guest editors of this journal are seeking submissions for the forthcoming edition ‘Reframing artificial intelligence: Critical perspectives from AI social science’
In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence (AI), public and academic discourse is often dominated by polarised narratives—either heralding AI as a solution to complex problems or warning of its dangers … this Collection invites social science perspectives to advance the study of AI’s sociotechnical, cultural and political dimensions.
Submission deadline: 30 April. Read on...
|  | The Jobs & Scholarships Board allows you to view opportunities that TASA Admin and fellow members have posted.
In 4 easy steps, you can upload job & scholarship opportunities from your member's profile screen. For instructions, visit here.
The Jobs & Scholarships Board is a public facing searchable feature of TASAweb.
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 | TASA’s Executive Committee (EC) governs the Association and manages its daily business as outlined in the Constitution and by established policies. A call for nominations for the 2027 – 2028 Executive term will be disseminated on July 1, 2026.
The November 2024 - November 2026 Executive Team can be viewed on TASAweb here.
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 | TASA was officially established under the name of the Sociological Association of Australia and New Zealand (SAANZ) in 1963, crystallising what was a long, and perhaps delayed process of the discipline’s development in Australia.
For the 50th anniversary celebrations in 2013, pages on TASA's history were added to TASAweb.
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 | The more members TASA has, the stronger our association can be.
To help spread the word about TASA, you can quickly and easily gift a TASA membership to someone from within your TASA membership profile.
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 | | TASA members have free access to over 90 peer-reviewed Sage Sociology full-text collection online journals encompassing over 63,000 articles. The image on the left shows you where to access those journals, as well as the Sage Research Methods Collection & the Taylor and Francis Full Text Collection, when logged in to TASAweb. If needed, here is a short instructive video on how to access the online resources. |
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 | TASA currently has 27 thematic groups in operation and members can join up to 4 groups. This can be done quickly, and easily via your membership profile.
Watch the very short video (1:30) to learn how to join a thematic group/s.
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 | TASA's Membership Directory allows you to search for members by country and state. It also has search functions for members of a particular thematic group, and members who are available for supervision and/or mentoring.
To learn how to search the Membership Directory, watch this very short video (1 min).
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 | Via your membership profile, you can update many options including adding a secondary email address, and indicating if you are available for mentoring, supervising, consulting, and/or talking to the media, for example. If you are in a Tier 2, Tier 3 & Tier 4 membership category, you can also opt in or out of receiving a hard copy of the Journal of Sociology.
All of these changes can be done quickly and easily. To learn how, watch this video (1 min). |
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Personal pronoun preferences can be added to your profile. There are 9 combination options to choose from. Please let Sally in TASA Admin know if your preference/s is not on the list and we will have them added.
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 | We encourage you to support your colleagues by sharing details of your latest publications with them via this newsletter. No publication is too big or too small.
Any mention of sociology is of value to our association, and to the discipline, so please do email through details of your latest publication/s (fully referenced & with a link, where possible), events, job adverts etc. for the next newsletter, to TASA Admin (right click to retrieve the email address). Usually, the newsletter is disseminated every Thursday morning. |
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 | As part of the agreement with Taylor & Francis, TASA members are entitled to a 30% books discount. This discount is valid on any full priced CRC Press or Routledge book.
To access the book discount, click on the following link and then log in to TASAweb: book discount link. |
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Admin (Sally): admin@tasa.org.au
Events (Penny): events@tasa.org.au
Membership (Ali): membership@tasa.org.au
Digital Publications Editor (Roger): digitalpe@tasa.org.au
Thematic Groups (Naomi): thematicgroups@tasa.org.au
Postgraduates (Molly): postgraduates@tasa.org.au | |