Dear ~~first_name~~,
Welcome to this week’s TASA newsletter. You might notice a different look, along with a few changes designed to improve formatting and make the newsletter shorter.
The content is still all there to explore. We have two TASA Thursdays happening today, a bumper collection of new publications from our members, and a warm welcome to our newest postgraduate member. We also have two exciting initiative announcements from Journal of Sociology Editors-in-Chief Ash Barnwell and Signe Ravin, alongside new event listings and more.
And, importantly, our TASA 2026 Conference Handbook, Book of Abstracts, and online Program are all available. With the event fast approaching, these are terrific resources for planning your conference week on the Sunshine Coast, which is just 5 weeks and 4 days away!
We hope you enjoy the new-look newsletter. All feedback and suggestions welcome!
Warm regards,
TASA Team
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- TODAY 15 October - Sociology of Sports & Leisure TASA Thursdays
- TODAY 15 October - Social Theory TASA Thursdays
- TOMORROW 16 October - Housing & Urban Sociology symposium 'Ready or Not?: Improving adoptability of regional, rural & remote preparedness research'
- 20 October - A Sociology of Emotions & Affect Symposium
- 22 October - TASA Thursdays - Beyond Data: Stories, Power, & Lived Experience in Sociological Research
- 23 October - Families & Relationships 'Transition to Parenthood' event
- 23 October - Sociology of Religion symposium 'Leaving Religion and the Politics of Nonreligion'
- 26 October - Sociology of Youth 'Catch up and Write' session
- 29 October - TASA Thursdays - A Robot for Every Home: On The Robotisation of the Domestic Sphere
- 6 November - TASA Executive Meeting
- 15 November - Applications for the JoS ECR Mentoring Program
- 18 November - Remote, Regional & Rural symposium
- 23 November - Migration, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism symposium 'Theorising migration, settlement and diversity in unsettled times'
- 23 November - TASA Executive Meeting
- 23 -27 November - TASA 2026
- 1 December - Abstract submissions for the JoS Sociologies for the Future series
|  | Our Impact & Outreach section below provides a snapshot of recent publications shared with us by TASA members. We know our members are producing an enormous range of valuable sociological research, books, articles, blogs and other publications, and we’d love to help showcase more of this work.
If you have a recent publication you’d like us to share with TASA's community, and beyond, please email the details to admin@tasa.org.au. We’d love to hear about your work and include it in a future newsletter. | Bessant, J., Watts, R., 2027, The Politics of Deception: Youth Political Participation in an Age of Global Crises Routledge – Routledge. open access. | In a time of global crises, governments, international agencies and various experts claim to promote political participation that is inclusive of children and young people. This book details how these claims tend to be deceptive.
The Politics of Deception demonstrates how youth parliaments, councils and roundtables are governance exercises not just designed and tightly managed by adults but limited by them. Informed by adultist ways of seeing, young people are represented as vulnerable and citizens-in-waiting and cannot be taken seriously as political agents. Read on...
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Book Chapters
Wendt, S., & Clarke, J. (2026). The role of religion in preventing and responding to domestic and family violence. In A. Flynn, F. McLachlan, K. Cripps, & J. True (Eds.), Eliminating Violence Against Women: A Handbook for the Indo-Pacific Region (pp. 97-106). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/doi:10.1515/9783112222881-013 [open access].
Bessant, J., Pickard, S., and Watts, R., 2026, ‘Intergenerational solidarity, young people, ‘grannies’, ‘nannas’ and climate politics in Hankel, B, Moore, K, Miranda, A, Shildrick, T., and Laguna, E. (eds) The SAGE handbook of global youth studies, Sage. ISBN 978-1-873671-00-
Bessant, J., and Pickard, S., 2026, ‘Student protests and youth action against the pension reforms in France’, in Erdal, C. and Kennelly, J. (eds), Handbook on youth activism, De Gruyter: 299-310 https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111215105-030/html?srsltid=AfmBOor-DqsB7x0kKgenpD5t8S9Uqiue1mLANk8Ys-qF6cbaeP-dhrWD
Bessant, J., Catanzaro, M., and Watts, R., 2026, ‘Political satire, carnivale and Australia’s School Strike for Climate’, in Akram, S. and Bowman, B. (eds), Handbook of young people and environmental activism, Routledge: 50-64 https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111215105-030/html
Special Issues
Guest Editors: Collin, P., Bessant, J. & Catanzaro, M. Special Issue: “Youth Studies in Australia and the Climate Crisis: Time for Action”. Australian Youth Studies 171–185 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43151-026-00228-y
Journals
Istiko, Satrio N., Allyson Mutch, Judith A. Dean, and Lisa Fitzgerald. 2026. “ Rethinking Postmigration HIV Vulnerability Through Migrant Networks and Whiteness: Race-Conscious Conversations With Newly Arrived Asian-Born Gay Migrants in Australia,” Sociology of Health & Illness: e70283. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.70283 [open access].
Gabriel Caluzzi, Felicity Wardle, Sarah Clifford, Ruth Canty, Cassandra J C Wright, Exploring the role of commercial actors and structures in contributing to sexual violence in live music venues, Health Promotion International, Volume 41, Issue 5, October 2026, daag148, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daag148 [open access].
Wright, J., and G. Robinson. (2026). “The land’s been queer longer than the colonizers have been here. Hiy hiy”: Impacts of anti-queer and trans policies and resistance through art, queer joy, and worldmaking among youth. Sexuality, Gender & Policy, 9(4), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/sgp2.70067 [open access].
Kim, A., Merner, B., Taylor, M., Luo, Y., Cannizzo, F., Petersen, A., Gaff, C., Newson, A.J., Marchant, K. & Keogh, L. (2026) 'Genomic Data Governance Challenges Between Research and Clinical Care: A Scoping Review', Health Expectations, DOI: 10.1111/hex.70889, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hex.70889, [open access].
Huang, Y., Li, B., & Morris, A. (2026). Organizational Social Infrastructure in Multicultural Australia: Chinese Community Organizations in Sydney. Urban Governance, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/26643286261493879 [open access].
Gook, B. (2026) ‘The nihilism industry: Streaming disavowal and ressentiment in the age of prediction markets’, Finance and Society, pp. 1–17. doi:10.1017/fas.2026.10050. https://doi.org/10.1017/fas.2026.10050 [open access].
Bessant, J., Collin, P., & Montero, N. (2026). The politics of a ‘duty of care’: children, climate change and social media in Australia, 2020–2025. Australian Journal of Political Science, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2026.2720005 [open access].
Op-ed / Commentary
Jack Hynes, (9 October, 2026) Deep Heat, Arena Quarterly (issue 27).
|  | We extend a warm welcome to this week's new Postgraduate member Xueru Li, based at Griffith University. Xueru is researching women in sport and will be at TASA 2026. If you are attending the conference, you will be able to meet her then:-)
We also extend our thanks to all our renewing members. We encourage everyone, particularly our postgraduate members, to add a backup email address to your member profile. This helps ensure you stay connected with TASA when you move institutions or workplaces, and means you can continue to access your membership, the E-Newsletter and other TASA resources wherever your career takes you.
|  | Journal of Sociology
Call for papers
Journal of Sociology Serial: Sociologies for the Future
What will be the future of sociology as a discipline? How can we ‘future-proof’ sociology to ensure its relevance in years ahead? Over the decades scholars and pundits have augured the demise of the discipline in the face of big data, political censorship, and most recently AI. Yet sociology has proven to be nimble and adaptive, shapeshifting to ever new social turns. What will be its next moves? Its new challenges? What sociological concerns does the future hold across subfields new and old? And how will we generate the methods and theories needed to meet them? In this serial we invite sociological thinkers to speculate on what the future might look like and require of us and to map out the disciplinary terrains and tools that loom on the horizon.
Papers for the first segment, topics, are due in April 2027.
Abstract submission deadline: 1 December. Read on...
Call for applicants
Journal of Sociology 2027 ECR Mentoring Program: ‘Developing a research article’
The Journal of Sociology (JoS) is launching a new mentoring program for Early Career Academics. This program will provide structured support from the Editors-in-Chief and senior mentors to help ECRs develop a research article for consideration for publication in Journal of Sociology. The program is aimed at scholars who have recently completed a PhD, are precariously employed, and have little access to the support and feedback needed to write articles from their own thesis or related research. The program is designed to support ECRs to publish that first sole-authored contribution to sociology in a discipline-wide journal like JoS.
Application deadline: 15 November.
For the full details, including how to apply, Read on...
Journal of Sociology, 62 (3)
Issue 62:3 includes a Special Issue on 'Towards a pedagogy of care in higher-ed institutions. All articles are available here.
Teaching Notes - call for peer reviewers
If you would be willing to review a future Teaching Notes, please send your details to the Teaching Notes Editors garrity.hill@unimelb.edu.au and nicholas.pendergrast@unimelb.edu.au. Please include your name, email, and 3 topics of interest. Your details will be kept in a secure database to consult for future peer review requests. Of course you can still always decline to review when the request comes if you are too busy at that time.
| Health Sociology Review
Watch this space for an announcement about the new HSR editorial team for the 2027-2029 term!
Health Sociology Review, Volume 35, Number 2 (July, 2026).
All articles in the latest issue are available here.
|  | PLEASE CONTACT
FOR MORE INFORMATION | | |
 | | THE EVENT WILL RUN IN THE NEW YEAR;
DATE TO BE DETERMINED. | | |
Community Choir
La Seconda Gioventù (The Second Youth)
Friday 6th November, 1-3pm AWST
City of Fremantle Town Hall, Perth
An Italian community choir concert. This event brings together fellow member Simone Marino's ongoing research and lived community practice.
| | Development of a training intervention
Griffith University researchers are working to strengthen how disability support workers are prepared to work with people with intellectual and/or neurodevelopmental disabilities who exhibit complex and challenging behaviours. They are seeking participants with experience supporting this cohort of people with disabilities as:
- Service and training providers for support workers
- Disability support workers
- Family members, carers, and advocates
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Fellowships
Call for Fellowship Nominations
Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
The Academy Fellowship currently comprises around 750 Fellows, of whom 38% are women, and 15 identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Fellows of the Academy include Australia’s leading researchers and practitioners across the breadth of social science disciplines, as well as a number of honorary Fellows (those who have made significant contributions to the social sciences beyond research), and overseas Fellows working outside of Australia.
To become a Fellow of the Academy individuals must be nominated by three existing Fellows (a proposer and two seconders), and have demonstrated an outstanding contribution to one or more fields of social science research or practice in Australia. Nominations are considered by the Academy’s disciplinary Panels, by independent assessors, then by the Membership Committee before being put to a vote of Academy Fellows in a general ballot.
| Award & Prizes
People Places Prize
Future Leaders
Prize $10,000
The People Places Prize 2026 is about creative and innovative ideas for living places. The Prize is open to Australian citizens and residents aged 18 and over. The winner will receive $10,000 and their ideas featured on www.peopleplaces.org.au.
Creative and innovative ideas for the Prize can be in any (or combination) of four areas.
– The Arts
– Green spaces
– Building design
– Disability access
Entry deadline: 1 November. Read on...
|  | Award for Excellence in Research
The ISA Award for Excellence in Research and Practice is granted by the International Sociological Association to a sociologist whose outstanding contributions advance and promote sociological knowledge and practice, while strengthening the discipline, the profession, and the ISA.
Worldwide Competition for Junior Sociologists
The Competition is open to eligible junior sociologists who obtained their first Master’s degree (or an equivalent graduate diploma) in sociology or in a closely related discipline less than 10 years prior to 30 October 2026. In cases of joint or multiple authorship, this rule applies to all authors of the submitted paper.
| Events
Panels
New: Future Right Now: Young People, Climate Action and a Vibrant Democracy (new pictorial book)
17 October
The event will feature a panel discussion with contributors and researchers, participatory creative activities, and opportunities for conversation between young people, community members, policymakers and organisations. Together, we will explore how creativity, collective action and youth voices can help build a more vibrant democracy.
Summits
Australian Social Cohesion
5-6 November, Melbourne
The summit will explore the forces shaping Australia’s social fabric through the theme: Understanding Australia’s Social Fabric: Diversity, Connections, and the Future of Social Cohesion.
Forum & Social Gathering
New: Researching with(in) regional and rural communities
This forum aims to generate discussion & build community among researchers working with regional, rural, & remote places and communities
13 November, 2:00pm - 4:45pm AEDT
University of Melbourne
Seminars
Researching Supervision, Pedagogy, Language and Social Justice in a Time of Global Change
Online, 28 October, 4:30pm - 6:30pm AEDT
AI, migration and changing ideas about knowledge are reshaping how doctoral students are supervised, taught and supported. This seminar brings together five leading scholars to consider what these changes mean for doctoral education, research relationships, multilingualism, migration and social justice.
For details, and to register, read on...
Digital Well-Being: A Dream or a Crisis?
Monday 26 October at 5.30pm at ACMI (Melb) or online
The event will explore the idea of digital wellbeing, including how it is being defined, debated, and mobilised across research, policy and practice.
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.
| Conferences
Towards a post-sustainability society? New challenges, agendas, and roles in socio-ecological transformation and its research
16-18 March 2027, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Abstract submission deadline: 15 November. Read on....
| Publications
Call for Submissions - Special Issues
Epistemic Emotions in and around the law
Frontiers in Sociology of Law
Editors: Renata Grossi, Eve Hanan, Alessandra Minissale, Cecilia Nordquist, Kate Rossmanith.
Law and Emotion scholars have consistently challenged the reason versus emotion divide in our understandings of law and legal processes, scholars have established that emotion in law is methodologically sound, and epistemically significant. More recently an additional tool has emerged to further such investigations: epistemic emotions.
Abstract submission deadline: 5 November. Read on....
Rethinking Gender Pressures, Education and Wellbeing in Schools
Guest Editors: Associate Professor Garth Stahl (The University of Queensland), Dr. Sarah McDonald (Adelaide University), Dr. Rohann Irving (Flinders University), Professor Murray Drummond (Flinders University)
Gender is a fundamental dimension of child and adolescent development, and growing research highlights the influence of gender norms, expectations, and stereotypes on student wellbeing. Across school, family, peer, and digital contexts, young people encounter gendered pressures that shape their bculine and feminine ideals, gender based harassment, and internalised gender role stress are associated with elevated rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation.
Manuscript submission deadline: 31 January, 2027. Read on...
Health security and health and care workforce resilience conflicts, crises and capacities
Health Policy, Elsevier, published in collaboration with the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
Guest editors: Ellen Kuhlmann, Katarzyna Dubas-Jakóbczyk, Michelle Falkenbach, Gabriela Lotta
Health security depends on a resilient health and care workforce. Yet climate change, pandemics, hybrid and armed conflicts, migration and rapidly evolving digital technologies are converging with a severe health and care workforce crisis, exposing major gaps in current health security policies. This special issue explores how health and care workforce resilience can become a cornerstone of health security through stronger governance, leadership, implementation and transsectoral policies. We welcome contributions covering all areas of the health and care workforce addressing health security challenges in single or multiple countries, primarily high-income countries in line with the journal’s scope.
Submission deadline: 31 January 2027 (acceptance to online publication: two days). 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.
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