 | Dear ~~first_name~~,
This week’s newsletter brings together important conversations, new beginnings, and a few timely reminders.
We’re pleased to share the recording of last week’s TASA Thursdays session, Schooling Misogyny: Examining the Influence of the Manosphere in Education Settings, presented by Stephanie Wescott and Steven Roberts. The discussion offered a thoughtful and urgent examination of how misogynistic ideologies are circulating within educational contexts and what this means for schools, teachers, and young people. If you missed it, the recording is now available here.
Today, we continue our TASA Thursdays series with fellow member Laura Simpson Reeves & colleague Joel Hollier on Researching Sensitive Topics: Ethics, Care, and Boundaries, exploring the practical and ethical complexities of working in challenging research spaces. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a reflective and valuable session.
We’re also delighted to introduce our new TASA Staff webpage, making it easier to connect names, roles, and faces across the Association. You’ll find details about who to contact for what.
A reminder that Thematic Group funding applications are due by this Sunday March 1st and our two TASA Book Awards close this Monday March 2nd.
This week we also welcome new conveners for the Sociology & Religion and Families & Relationships Thematic Groups, share recent publications from our members, and extend a warm welcome to those who have recently joined TASA.
As always, there is plenty happening across the Association and we are glad to have you as part of it.
Warm regards,
TASA Team
| Final call: TASA Book Awards
| The nomination deadline for our two TASA Book Awards is this coming Monday March 2nd:
- Stephen Crook Memorial Prize: Awarded for the best authored book in Australian Sociology.
- Raewyn Connell Prize: Awarded for the best first book by an author in Australian Sociology.
Note, if a book is eligible for the Raewyn Connell Prize it may also be nominated for the Stephen Crook Memorial Prize (i.e. can nominate one book for both prizes but would need to supply 12 copies of the book - 6 for each book prize panel).
| | TASA THURSDAY POSTGRAD | TODAY Thursday 26 February | 12:30PM AEDT |
Join us TODAY for this month’s TASA Thursdays Postgraduate Session, Researching Sensitive Topics: Ethics, Care, and Boundaries.This reflective and practical webinar invites sociology postgraduates and early career researchers to explore the ethical complexities of qualitative research. Our panellists will discuss care, responsibility, emotional labour, and boundary-setting across fieldwork, analysis, and writing, offering insights into managing wellbeing while maintaining analytical rigour.
| | | | TASA THURSDAYS | 26 MARCH 2026 | 12:30PM AEDT
Join us on 26 March at 12:30pm AEDT for a special TASA Thursdays New Members Onboarding session. Hosted by the Student Career Stage Group Convenors, this webinar will introduce TASA’s role and objectives, outline key member benefits, and guide you through accessing resources such as thematic groups, career stage networks, journal access, events and the newsletter. Discover how to get involved and make the most of your TASA membership.
| | | TASA 2026 promises to be an inspiring event bringing together the sociological community to explore the theme: Revolution and Resistance. The theme asks: What can sociology offer to understandings of resistance and revolution? How can we read resistance and revolution expansively, productively and generatively in pursuit of a better world?
General Abstract Submission Deadline: 24 April
These include thematic group presentations, book launches, photography exhibitions and workshop proposals.
Panel Proposal Abstract Submission Deadline: 29 March
This is for panel proposals only.
More details about the conference, including the submission links, are available on our TASA 2026 web pages here..
Note, the conference bursary applications are now open as well. You need to submit an abstract before applying for a bursary.
| Welcome new members Shelley Davidson and Kelly Hand, and gratitude to all those members who are renewing at this very busy time of year, it is appreciated. If you have colleagues or students who are not yet members of TASA, we are always happy to share information about membership benefits, our fee structure and how to join with people new to TASA, just email Ali at membership@tasa.org.au and she will support your colleague or student through the process of becoming a member.
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Journal Articles
Kyaw, A. T., Hanckel, B., Thwe, N. K., Zimmerman, C., & Ranganathan, M. (2026). Invisible girls, visible harms: health, well-being, and safety among child domestic workers in Myanmar. Community, Work & Family. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2026.2631438 (open access).
Chandra, S., Broom, A., Ridge, D., Haire, B., Bradshaw, C., Broom, J., Peterie, M., Lafferty, L., Applegate, T., & Guy, R. (2026). Friendship and the Sociality of GBTQ+ Sexual Health in Times of Resistance. Sociology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385261418857 (open access).
Op-ed / Commentary
| Health Sociology Review: Call for new editorial team
| As a reminder, applications are invited for the editorship of Health Sociology Review (HSR) for the three-year term 2027 - 2029.
Transition arrangements will begin later in 2026, although the content for the first issue of 2027, and possibly the second, will be finalised by the out-going editorial team.
The application deadline is Monday 22nd June, 2026.
The full details of the call are available on TASAweb here.
| | Career Stage Groups: Mid-Career Convener/s needed
| We continue to seek Convenors for the Mid Career Stage Group. If you've been working in the field of Sociology for 10 or so years, and have ideas around ways to build networks and offer activities that would benefit you at work or in your research, with some support from TASA staff, please do get in contact with Ali via membership@tasa.org.au.
| If you are a thematic group (TG) convener, or a member of a TG, note that the next TG funding deadline is this Sunday March 1. If you have any questions, please contact Sally Daly in TASA Admin as Naomi, our TG portfolio leader, is currently overseas on leave.
| Groups Seeking Co-Conveners
| Three of our Thematic Groups are looking for members to step into co-convening roles:
Being a co-convenor is a rewarding way to contribute to TASA, help shape discussions in your area, and connect with colleagues across institutions and career stages. You won’t be doing it alone, support is available from the Thematic Group Portfolio Leader, the Events Manager, the Membership Director, and me.
If you’re interested in stepping into a co-convenor role, for one of the above groups, or want to know more about what it involves, please contact Sally TASA Admin.
| We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Katja Strehle and Samantha Hauw as the new conveners of the Sociology of Religion Thematic Group. Together, they bring thoughtful scholarship and fresh momentum to the group’s activities. We look forward to the leadership and collegial energy they will contribute in supporting and advancing this important area of sociological inquiry.
|  | | Katja Strehle has completed her PhD in Sociology within the Religion and Society Research Cluster, at Western Sydney University in 2024. Her thesis is titled Lived Experiences of Australian Atheist and Humanist Women in Nonreligious Groups: Gendered Performance and (Dis)Engagement. She was leading a research team for the Western Sydney University HASS Doctoral Internship Program, conducting mixed-methods analysis in cooperation with Humanists Australia to identify membership motivations and evaluate advocacy initiatives.
She organised the 2025 symposium on Non-religion, Spirituality and Secularism in public and is looking forward to working with Samantha Hauw as convenors for the Sociology of Religion Thematic Group.
Katja's current research focuses on gender relations and women’s meaning making in nonreligious groups in Australia, and HDR students’ feelings of belonging in Australian Universities.
She is teaching at Western Sydney University as well as The University of Sydney across various disciplines, such as Religious Studies, Sociology and Social Work.
|  | Samantha Hauw is a PhD student at Deakin University, Australia, supervised by Professor Anna Halafoff and Professor Andrew Singleton. She explores conscious/ecstatic dance, spirituality and relational being. She was a research fellow on the Australian Spirituality: Wellbeing and Risks ARC Project, tutors undergraduates in the sociology of religion and will co-convene the Sociology of Religion Thematic Group with Katja Strehle in 2026/27.
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We’re also delighted to confirm that Cal Volks will continue as convener of the Families & Relationships Thematic Group, providing steady leadership and a deep understanding of the group’s work. And equally delighted to welcome Michelle Peterie, Giverny Lewis and Ezra Kneebone as new co-conveners. With a blend of experience and new perspectives, this team is well placed to further develop and invigorate the Families & Relationships community in the months ahead.
|  | | Cal Volks' research uncovers how digital platforms shape donor reproductive practices, kinship and identity formation in donor assisted reproduction. Cal's research has shown how in online spaces Australian egg and sperm donors and recipients who meet online negotiate relationships, early contact and co-construct moral and ethical norms within donor * recipient * donor- conceived childrden triads. Her studies reveal how digital infrastructures uncover new forms of reproductive citizenship. Cal worked previously at the HIV/AIDS & Inclusivity Unit at the University of Cape Town (HAICU) conducting research; teaching students and developing & evaluating sexual and reproductive health interventions. Cal currently works as a research fellow at Monash University with Prof. Andrea Whittaker (CI) on an ARC grant on oocyte mobilities in Southern African as well as an ARC grant on uterus transplants. Cal has delivered/ is engaged with a range of policy and education interventions for University students and fertility stakeholders (recipient parents of donor conception; donors and donor-conceived people) in Australia and with fertility clinicians and counsellors in Australia; South Africa; Vietnam and Japan, ensuring her research has a real world impact.
|  | | Dr Michelle Peterie is ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow in the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies at the University of Sydney. Michelle’s research investigates the impacts of social policies and practices on individual and collective wellbeing. Taking a person-centred approach - and in close collaboration with research participants - her work seeks to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children, families and communities. Michelle is currently leading an ARC DECRA project about the impacts of parental immigration detention and deportation on children, and an ARC Linkage Project about the long-term impacts of immigration detention in the lives of people who were detained as children. Michelle is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Social Issues (Q1), an executive member of the Australian Social Policy Association, and a past co-convenor of TASA’s Sociology of Emotions and Affect thematic group. Her books include Infrastructures of Informal Care: Inequality, Exploitation, Emancipation (Peterie et al., 2026); Immigration Detention and Social Harm: The Collateral Impacts of Migrant Incarceration (Peterie, 2024); Visiting Immigration Detention: Care and Cruelty in Australia’s Asylum Seeker Prisons (Peterie, 2022); Compulsory Income Management in Australia and New Zealand: More Harm than Good? (Marston et al., 2022); and Emotions in Late Modernity (Patulny et al, 2019). | | |
 | | Giverny Lewis returned to study her Sociology PhD at the University of Newcastle at the end of 2023 after several years working as a sex therapist and relationships counsellor in Sydney and Newcastle. Prior to private practice, she worked for a number of State and National organisations related to sexual health and gender, LGBTQI+ health, and sex education with young people. She has been published in Women’s Health, GQ & Cosmo, and has provided expert commentary for Triple J’s ‘The Hook Up’ Program. She has a particular interest in new materialist and posthuman feminism, embodiment, affect and creative research methodologies.
|  | Ezra Kneebone is an interdisciplinary researcher examining the social and psychological dimensions of human reproduction. Working in partnership with community members and stakeholders, she produces evidence to inform law, policy, and clinical practice in ways that are grounded in lived experience and attentive to the best interests of the child. Her expertise includes assisted reproductive technologies, third-party reproduction, and preterm birth.
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| Scholarship Opportunities
| PhD Scholarship - Older adult abuse and migration
Edith Cowan University
A PhD student is sought to conduct a nested study as part fellow member Catriona Stevens's ARC-funded DECRA ‘Elder abuse and migration: Addressing the abuse of older adults to support safer ageing in multicultural Australia'.
The PhD project will focus on one or more community language groups in Australia. It will deliver new knowledge about how older adult abuse is understood, and how it manifests in Australian, homeland, and transnational contexts.
| 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
| National survey seeking participants
| New: Sport and physical activity experiences of women/girls/nonbinary people with disability
The research team includes fellow members Simone Fullagar, Georgia Munro-Cook, Adele Pavlidis & Ruth Jeanes et al.
The survey is intended for woman/girl/nonbinary person with disability aged 16+, regardless of how much sport you do or do not play. It explores how women, girls and nonbinary people with a disability engage with sport and physical activity. The survey seeks to generate more in-depth understandings of the key enablers and benefits of participation, and how participation can be improved. The research will contribute new knowledge to transform programs, policies and practice resources across adaptive and mainstream sports.
The survey takes approximately 10-15 minutes and there is a prize draw. We welcome you to share the survey amongst your networks.
| New: National Library of Australia Fellowships
Open to researchers in various fields and disciplines, the fellowships offer financial and research support for dedicated time using the library's collections. Providing extended access to Australia's largest cultural collection, National Library Fellowships foster research that produces new knowledge to shape Australia's intellectual landscape and contributes to public understanding of our collections.
| Journal of Intercultural Studies - call for Associate Editors
Applicants with expertise in cultural studies and postcolonial literature; decolonial studies; race/ethnicity/migration studies are encouraged to apply. Our Associate Editors are based in different locations around the world - applicants from diverse geographies are encourged. Feel free to reach out to the current editors-in-chief if you have any specific queries.
British Sociological Association's Sociological Research Online (SRO) and Cultural Sociology (CUS) - call for Editors
SRO and CUS are currently accepting applications for new Editorial Board members for a 3-year term from 2026-2029.
Application deadline: TODAY 26 February. Read on...
| Influencer Diplomacy
Online, 24 April
Influencer diplomacy operates not only at formal state and institutional levels but also intersects with everyday politics, shaping public discourse and social engagement. Selected papers for this symposium will be considered for a peer reviewed edited collection. As such, only original, previously-unpublished abstracts/papers will be considered.
Abstract submission deadline: 16 March.
| States of Solidarity: How to Build a Society
Book launch with Professor Barbara Prainsack, University of Vienna. Barbara was a TASA 2022 Keynote.
University of Sydney
TOMORROW Friday February 27 from 12:30 pm to 2 pm AEDT
For details, and to register, read on...
| Online Research Workshops
| Ethics in practice and trauma-aware data collection
Refugee Education Australia
An online guided workshop series for researchers working in fragile contexts – areas like forced migration, gender-based violence, disaster research, anything involving trauma or sensitive data.
18 March, 25 March & 1 April. All 3-5pm AEDT.
Fellow member Phillipa Bellemore will be one of the workshop facilitators.
Migrant Lives in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Digital Care, Belonging, and the Re-making of Migration Experiences
An international, interdisciplinary research workshop examining the rapidly evolving relationship between migration and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Online, June 17
Abstract submission deadline: March 15. Read on...
| International Center for the Sociology of Religion (ICSOR)
The grants provide residence in Rome for the duration of a week or more to a maximum of two months. The ICSOR apartment (all-inclusive, except for food and insurance) and library will be available to awardees free of charge.
| New: ANU School of Sociology Seminar Series
The program for the ANU School of Sociology Seminar Series is now online. All seminars are hybrid, with options to join via Zoom. Please visit the School’s Humanitix page, here, to view and register for upcoming seminars.
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.
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
| New: Digital and Sexual Citizenship in an Age of Social Media Bans: Interrogating the Rights of Children and Young People
Initiative of the ECU Ethical Digital Futures Group
6-8 July, Perth, in-person only
Abstract and/or panel proposal deadline: 20 April. Read on...
Temporalities: The Sixth Annual Critical Femininities Conference
Online, August 7 - 9
The Critical Femininities Network invites abstracts from scholars, researchers, activists, and artists
Toward an Intelligent Society: Challenges & Opportunities” [Human Intelligence(s) vs. Artificial Intelligence]
University "Fehmi Agani" Gjakove, KOSOVO
Hyrbid, 22-23 May
Religion as a Weapon of War: in the past, present and future
World Conference for Religio. us Dialogue and Cooperation
June 22-26. 2026, Skopje, North Macedonia
Abstract submission deadline: April 15. Read on...
BSA Annual Conference 2026: 75 Years of Sociology
University of Edinburgh, UK
8-10 April.
| Special Issues - call for submissions
| New: Further Locating Masculinities in Gender, Work and Organisational Contexts
Gender, Work and Organization
Contributions that further delineate the relationships between masculinities and work and organisations are encouraged. Avoiding siloing, such analysis can continue dialoguing with feminist and queer perspectives on masculinities, as well as creating continuities with the ‘pro-feminist men’s movement’.
Abstract submission deadline: 15 March. Read on...
Social Conditions, Clinical Logics: Rethinking Young People’s Engagement with Drug Treatment
International Journal of Drug Policy
This special issue invites submissions that explore or examine how the social conditions of young people’s substance use shape their engagement in drug treatment. Editors are looking for papers that critically explore, among other things, biomedical and psychologised approaches to AOD care, how contexts of crisis and social inequity shape treatment experience, and how treatment might be experienced differently by First Nations, LGBTQ+, refugee, migrant and racialized youth.
Serendipities. Journal for the Sociology and History of the Social Sciences
If you would like to propose a special issue for their collection, please feel free to discuss this with the Managing Editors. If your ideas are further advanced, you are welcome to send them a one-to-two page proposal.
Managing Editors:
- Fran Collyer, University of Wollongong Australia, Fran@francollyer.com
- Kristoffer Kropp, Roskilde University, Denmark, kkropp@ruc.dk
You can find more information about our journal here.
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
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: TOMORROW 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...
| For membership information, processes, and frequently used resources, visit the Members' Navigator. To contact a member of the team directly, see our TASA Staff page. | 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 | |