Dear ~~first_name~~,
As highlighted in last week’s newsletter, we are expanding TASA’s leadership team with a new Membership Director role. Applications opened today (see the employment section below), and we warmly encourage you to share this opportunity within your networks.
To help increase the visibility of Indigenous-related content, please copy John, our Indigenous RA, into your emails when submitting items for this newsletter: indigenousmembership@tasa.org.au.
Finally, we hope you saw our email yesterday about our TASA 2025 Call for Abstracts—you’ll find all the details below!
| TASA 2025 - Call for Abstracts Now Open
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As per the dedicated email we sent yesterday, we are delighted to announce the call for abstracts for TASA 2025.
While the conference will still take place in the last week of November, this year we have significantly brought forward key dates as part of a trial aimed at streamlining processes and enhancing the overall conference experience—from submission to attendance. We appreciate your support with this change and kindly encourage you to submit by the relevant deadlines listed below. Your cooperation will help us create a smoother, more efficient, and rewarding conference for everyone.
This year's conference will explore the theme: Sociology in Action: Wellbeing, Policy & Activism in Times of Crises & Change, and will involve a mix of general (thematic group) presentations and panels.
The deadline for General Abstracts (aligned with Thematic Groups) is the 22nd April 2025.
The deadline for Panel Proposal submissions is a little earlier for planning reasons - 17th March 2025.
SUBMIT GENERAL ABSTRACT HERE
SUBMIT PANEL PROPOSALS HERE
Please note that this year, we will not be offering deadline extensions. We encourage you to submit on time to ensure your abstract is considered.
For more information about the submission process, read on...
| Post Grad Sub-Committee – Call for Additional Members
| Great Opportunity for Postgraduates!
| | Molly Saunders, the Postgraduate Portfolio Leader, is calling for one to two more members to join TASA’s Postgraduate Sub-Committee (PGSC) for the 2025-2026 term. This PGSC supports the Postgraduate Portfolio Leader in representing and furthering the interests of TASA’s postgraduate members. The PGSC consists of a maximum of seven members who usually serve a two-year term and meet online approximately four times a year as well as face-to-face at the annual conference.
The expression of interest deadline has been extended to February 28th. For the full details, read on... | | | TASA bestows several prestigious awards. For 2025, the following awards will be available:
- Distinguished Services to Australian Sociology Award
- Outstanding Service to TASA Award
- Jean Martin Award for best PhD in Sociology
- Outstanding Contributions to Teaching in Australian Sociology
- Sociology in Action Award
- Best Paper in the Journal of Sociology
- Best Paper in Health Sociology Review
- Early Career Researcher Award
- Postgraduate Impact & Engagement Award
The Jean Martin Award is open for nominations. All other Awards requiring nominations will open in March 2025 and close on June 2nd, 2025. For details on each award, read on...
| | The Impact of Opportunity: Reflections from some more TASA 2024 Bursary Recipients
| Our final report from a TASA 2024 bursary recipient comes from fellow member Kelly Moes.
Note, for TASA 2025, our conference bursary applications will open in the next week or so with an application deadline of April 22nd.
| | Jean Martin Award - Nominations Now Open!
| | Nominations for the 2025 Jean Martin Award are now open. This is a biennial award with the 2025 round being open to theses for which a PhD has been/will be formally awarded, by an Australian Tertiary Institution, between the period March 1st 2023 to 28 February 2025.
Nominations accepted include self-nominations as well as nominations from Supervisors, Heads of Sociology departments/schools and interdisciplinary Social science departments and other departments with a major commitment to Sociological analysis within Australian tertiary institutions.
As part of the nomination process, a one-page statement addressing the criteria, and outlining the sociological relevance of the thesis will need to be uploaded.
Nominations close on March 3rd. For details, and to nominate, read on... | | | New: Membership Director
The Australian Sociological Association
We are seeking an enthusiastic and proactive Membership Director to join our team on a part-time basis. This role will be responsible for implementing our new Career Stage Groups initiative and managing all aspects of membership engagement, recruitment, and retention. If you are passionate about member engagement, have an eye for detail, and enjoy developing strategic initiatives, we’d love to hear from you!
New: Sessional Teaching
University of Tasmania, Rozelle campus
Semester one, 2025
Facilitate workshops and mark assessments for first-year Nursing students as they learn about working with intersectional, diverse patient groups and explore the links between culturally responsive health care and health equity.
For further information please contact fellow member: Dr Kim McLeod, kim.mcleod@utas.edu.au, +61 3 6324 5045
If you are interested in being considered for an interview please forward a brief EOI and your CV to: kim.mcleod@utas.edu.au
New: Aboriginal Project Officer
Perth
This is a great opportunity to be involved in improving the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. They are specifically looking for a male project officer in order to ensure cultural protocols are followed when engaging men in the research projects. They encourage any interested person to apply even if they don't meet all the criteria, as there will be many opportunities for skills development within the role. Any inquiries can be directed to fellow member Nita Alexandra.
Research Officer (Justice Health Research Program) at UNSW, Sydney
Join the MRFF funded research project titled: "A 'whole-of-setting' model of care for trans and gender diverse people in prison". UNSW are now recruiting a 2-year (0.4FTE - 14 hours per week) research officer/coordinator position attached to the MRFF funded project. Those interested in undertaking a postgraduate research degree are encouraged to apply.
Application deadline: February 9th before 11.30pm. Read on...
| Evaluating Psychosocial Programs to Improve the Health of People Born with Innate Variations of Sex Characteristics
University of Southern Queensland with fellow member Annette Brombal
A PhD by publication with Scholarship to the InterLink team - an intersex mental health and wellbeing service part of an MRFF funded research project titled: Improving the physical and mental health of people born with innate variations of sex characteristics.
Application deadline: Friday 14 February, 2025. Read on...
| We encourage you to support fellow sociologists by sharing details of your latest publications with them via our weekly 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 Sally in TASA Admin. The newsletter is disseminated every Thursday morning.
| Pavlidis, A., Obrien, W., & Fullagar, S. (2025). Exploring the discomfort of gender difference through feminist theories of affect: creative conversations with coaches about working with women athletes. Sport in Society, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2025.2453845 [FULL ACCESS].
Phillips, T., Couch, D., Vargas, C., Graham, M., & Gleeson, D. (2025). Stockpiling moral panics: The politics of anxiety and the securitization of ‘panic buyers’ in news media reporting of Covid-19. Crime, Media, Culture, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17416590241312155 [FULL ACCESS].
Drysdale, K., Burton-Clark, I., & Moline, K. (2025). Reimagining menopause by expanding assumptions shaping research: a scoping review of gender and sexuality diverse people’s experiences and expectations. International Journal of Transgender Health, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2024.2447785. Note, this article came about from TASA's Gary Bouma Memorial Workshop Program. You can access details of the Reimagining Menopause workshop here.
Gower, R. and A. Possamai (2024) ‘The 2021 Australian “Mark ‘No Religion’” Campaign’ Australian Journal of Law and Religion 5: 79-82 https://doi.org/10.55803/A317B [FULL ACCESS].
Halafoff, A., Singleton, A. and Poulos. E. (2024) ‘Querying "No Religion": State, Society, and Spirituality in Australia’ Australian Journal of Law and Religion 5: 83-87 https://doi.org/10.55803/A317B [FULL ACCESS].
Townley, C., & Ullman, J. (2024). Hypervisibility and erasure: parents’ accounts of transgender children in early childhood education and care and primary schools. Gender and Education, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2024.2442955 [FULL ACCESS].
Munro-Cook, G., Fullagar, S., Pavlidis, A., & Kendall, E. (online 2024). Towards an Intersectional Understanding of Women With Diverse Experiences of Disability: Addressing the Policy Gap in Australian Disability Sport. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 48(5), 247-270. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01937235241276798 [FULL ACCESS].
| | Members' Work in Progress
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You are invited to share your work-in-progress with fellow members. Please submit your work-in-progress in a Word document by Wednesday for inclusion in the Thursday edition. We look forward to showcasing your work and fostering collaboration within our community.
| The next Thematic Group (TG) funding application deadline is March 1st, 2025. Groups can apply for up to $3000 (a one-off increase from the usual $2000) for events scheduled between July 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025. There is also additional funding to support Welcome to Country ceremonies and to meet accessibility needs for your events. Yesterday, a deadline reminder email was disseminated directly to all Thematic Group conveners from admin@tasa.org.au. Please contact Sally in TASA Admin if you are a TG convener and that email did not reach you.
| | Other Events, News & Opportunities | Call for Papers - Journals
| New: Interrogating Artificial Intelligence in Qualitative Research
Special Issue of Qualitative Research in Psychology
Artificial intelligence (AI) has brought forth a range of promises and implications for how we conduct qualitative research. In particular, the inception of generative AI in 2022 has raised new questions around research design, data authenticity, analysis, and what it means to do qualitative research with other-than-human technologies in the field of psychology and related social sciences. Within these lines of questioning, researchers express a mix of enthusiasm, caution, and concern. Such responses have been a salient topic on popular media platforms. Yet, peer-reviewed publications that discuss the role of AI in qualitative inquiry are only just beginning and still often lack critical examination.
| New: The Kohli Prize for Sociology
This prize honors exceptional achievements in and contributions to the field and profession of sociology
50.000 EUR
The winner is expected to deliver an address at the Prize Ceremony, to be held at the European University Institute (EUI, Fiesole/Florence) presumably on November 12, 2025.
Nomination deadline: March 16. Read on...
New: The Infrastructure Prize for Sociology
This prize honors persons, projects or organizations which have made a substantial contribution to an infrastructure in sociology.
10.000 EUR.
The winner is expected to deliver an address at the Prize Ceremony, to be held at the European University Institute (EUI, Fiesole/Florence) presumably on November 12, 2025.
Nomination deadline: March 16. Read on...
| New: Reparations and Reparative Justice in the field of Education
Social Justice SIG Invited Expert Seminar Series
Hybrid, Monday February 10th, University of Queensland, 4-6pm
New: New Directions for Social Justice in Australian Education Symposium
Hybrid, Tuesday February 11th, University of Queensland, 4-6pm
Storytelling for Justice
14 February, 9am - 5pm, QLD AEST
'Storytelling for Justice' explores the role of storying and listening in creating the conditions for justice and repair. This symposium promotes knowledge-sharing and discussion across fields of creative practice, sociology, social justice, and socio-legal, gender, media and communication studies.
Keynote presenter Dr Margaret Harvey (@unimelb) will speak to the topic of "Indigenous Presentism: Storying and Listening for a Thriving Now". Dr Harvey will highlight the role of storying and listening as pathways for connection, vitality, and transformation. This reimagining of what it means to thrive in the now is grounded in relational knowledge systems that extend care to people, is/land, and the more-than-human world.
| Report Launch and Public Discussion
| What Matters to Young Australians Through Turbulent Times and how can we engage better with young people to build a strong democracy?
An intergenerational discussion on what young people want for our society: their views and visions of their communities, Australia and the globe.
Since 2004, the Whitlam Institute’s What Matters? Writing Competition has given over 50,000 young Australians a unique platform to express their thoughts, concerns, and hopes. It is important that we listen. I've had the honour of leading a team to analyse these entries to understand the collective narratives of young people in Australia - who are so often ignored or overlooked in our democracy.
On Wednesday 12 February at the Whitlam Institute, Parramatta Sydney the analysis, will be launched, of the entries submitted between 2019 and 2023 — a period marked by a global pandemic, catastrophic bushfires, and a surge in activism around climate change, social justice, and democracy.
The event will include a summary of the report findings, a keynote by Australia's National Children's Commissioner Anna Hollonds, a panel of special guests who'll discuss the findings of the research - and its implications:
Panel: Dr Sky Hugman | Report co-author · Bodie Greatbatch Murphy | What Matters Competition Finalist · Emilio Goytizolo | Foundations for Tomorrow · Anhaar Kareem | Commissioner, Wellbeing Health & Youth · Charishma Kaliyanda MP | Member for Liverpool
| Understanding Poverty, Inequality and Social Disadvantage in Australia
UNSW
Explore the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality from an Australian policy perspective, building on the research and findings of the Poverty and Inequality Partnership (PIP) between UNSW and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS).
Convened by fellow member Yuvisthi Naidoo and Bruce Bradbury from UNSW’s Social Policy Research Centre, with guest academic, lived experience and welfare sector presenters.
18 February 2025 to 08 April 2025
Online (Self-paced learning and live lectures)
For professionals, advocates and researchers working in social policy across the for-profit, not-for-profit and government sectors or individuals with an interest in supporting their organisation's advocacy for social change in Australia.
37.5 hours | 6 modules across 7 weeks, AUD$500 - $1295
Online Live Sessions (Tuesdays 3pm to 5:15pm Sydney time). First online session, Tuesday 25 February.
For more information, read on...
| Visiting Fellowship Opportunity
| Visiting Professor in Australian Studies, University of Tokyo
International Australian Studies Association
Application deadline: 14th February. Read on...
| Graduate Research Program
| The Australian Centre Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Program in Indigenous Settler Relations
Applications are open for the 2025 Australian Centre Graduate Research Program. The Program is open to graduate researchers in any faculty whose topic has relevance to the emerging field of Indigenous settler relations in Australia and the world. The Program connects students with researchers across disciplines, fostering an engaged and supportive intellectual community, and creating a strong cohort experience for the duration of their study. The Program deepens academic understandings and enhances interdisciplinary knowledge exchange on research that leads to more just relations between Indigenous and settler peoples.
| ‘We, the People’ and the Future of Democracy: Interdisciplinary Approaches
European Center for Populism Studies & Oxford University
Hybrid, July 1-2, 2025
Abstract Submission Deadline: February 28, 2025. Read on...
| New: Empowering Futures, United for Every Child's Safety
Global Child Protection Conference
21 - 23 May, Hilton Hotel, Gold Coast QLD
Religion and the Contemporary Phase of Globalization: Possibilities and Challenges
3rd World Conference for Religious Dialogue and Cooperation
June 23-27. 2025, Krusevo, North Macedonia (Hotel Montana)
Abstract submission deadline: April 15. 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. 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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TASA Admin (Sally): admin@tasa.org.au
TASA Events (Penny): events@tasa.org.au
TASA Indigenous (John): indigenousmembership@tasa.org.au | |