Dear ~~first_name~~,
As you may know, every two years, we reach out to our members to hear how we’re doing, what we can do differently, what more we could do, and where we can do better. Today, we’re launching our biennial membership survey, and we’d be incredibly grateful if you could take some time to share your thoughts.
Whether you’ve been with TASA for years or just joined, your voice matters. Your feedback helps us refine our events, initiatives, and advocacy so we can continue building a stronger, more inclusive sociological community.
The survey is anonymous, takes about 15 minutes to complete, and will remain open until June 9th. Thank you in advance for helping shape the next chapter of TASA via the orange survey button below:
2025 Biennial Membership Survey
And while you're here! we invite you to scroll on to explore the latest members' publications, events, and job & scholarship opportunities from across our vibrant sociological community.
| Welcoming Our Newest Members
| Last week we launched this new section to warmly welcome new TASA members, and we’re continuing the practice today.
Each week, we’ll acknowledge those who’ve recently joined our sociological community, whether you’re a student, early career researcher, or someone discovering (or rediscovering) TASA for the first time.
To our newest members: we’re so pleased to have you with us and hope you quickly feel part of our inclusive and engaged community.
TASA is shaped by its members, and we’re stronger for every new voice that joins.
Welcome aboard!
- Joseph van Buuren (joining to co-convene our Crimes & Governance TG – thanks to fellow member Alexa Ridgway for the intro!)
- Danielle Flack
- Hermione Paddle
| Thorneycroft R, Nicholas L, and Smith EK (2025) Young People’s Perspectives of the ‘Male Gaze’ and Matters of Representation in Online Pornography. Australian Feminist Studies. Epub ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2025.2498648 (open access).
| Call for Conveners;
Inaugural Career Stage Groups
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Please Help Shape the Future of TASA’s Career Stage Support
We’re thrilled to be building momentum around our new Career Stage Groups (CSGs), an initiative designed to foster belonging, peer support, and career-tailored opportunities for members at every stage of their sociological journey. From students to retirees, these five new groups mirror our successful Thematic Group model and will be guided by one or more conveners.
Conveners will receive strong support from Ali (Membership Director), Penny (Events Manager), Sally in TASA Admin, and TASA’s Executive. They’ll also have access to a TASAweb Control Panel to connect with their group and lead meaningful initiatives.
If you’re keen to support others and contribute to growing a vibrant, supportive sociological community, we’d love to hear from you.
For the full Call for Conveners, please read on...
To express an interest, please submit a brief statement outlining your interest and relevant experience by 20 May via the orange link below.
| Contesting Military Identities
Monday 22nd September
TASA's Cultural Sociology Thematic Group in conjunction with UniSA, Flinders University and the Military Organisation and Culture Studies Group are hosting a 1-day conference in Adelaide and online around the theme of Contesting Military Identities.
Increased geo-strategic competition, the return of conventional warfare in Europe, the global rise in religious nationalism and the current US administration’s weaponisation of equity initiatives raises important questions around the diversity of identities within the military and current public sentiment towards the armed forces. Whereas Foucault famously cast the soldier as an ideal type of the docile body and sociologists commonly see the military as the ultimate example of a total institution, recent sociological research on the military has increasingly pointed to a variety of different military cultures, often existing in tension and competition with each other, with the service person, veteran and their families active in advocating for political and organisational change.
Abstract submission deadline: July 1st. Read on... | Knowing the City – movements, epistemologies, and visions
A one-day conference, 9 October, The University of Sydney
This event aims to explore ways of knowing the city and how these manifest in planning and the construction of the built environment.
The conference theme will be interpreted broadly and will include the following themes:
• Competing epistemologies and their translation into housing/planning policy
• Data, algorithms, and the city
• Infrastructures of Care
• Social movements related to the city
• Alternative ways of knowing the built environment such as through play or artistic expression
• Co-operative approaches to the city
Presentations at the conference will be recorded for use on the Urban Sociology TG webpage. The convenors will edit a special issue or collection of essays from conference presentations.
Abstract submission deadline: May 25th. Read on...
| TASA Thursdays | Reimagining Menopause: Mobilising Radical Imaginaries Across Social, Creative and Clinical Domains
Join us on Thursday 15th May at 12:30pm (AEST) for our TASA Thursdays session Reimagining Menopause: Mobilising Radical Imaginaries Across Social, Creative and Clinical Domains. Drawing on insights from a 2024 workshop supported by our TASA Gary Bouma Memorial Grant, this session explores how menopause can be reimagined beyond conventional norms. Hear from the team at UNSW Sydney as they share learnings and provocations that challenge dominant narratives and open up more inclusive understandings of menopause.
REGISTER HERE | | | TASA Thursdays Sociology of Music in Action
🗓 Thursday 29 May | 🕧 12:30pm – 1:30pm AEST | 📍 Zoom | 🎟 Free
Join us as we spotlight exciting new research from the Sociology of Music Thematic Group. Explore the impact of ‘stadiumism’ on regional musicians with fellow member Christine Bosworth, and uncover gendered utopias in DIY music scenes with fellow member Hannah Fairlamb. Don’t miss this fascinating dive into how music, place, and identity intersect in contemporary sociological research.
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The annual TASA Career Development Grant is now open for applications. The grant seeks to support the career development activities of TASA members where these activities are not covered by other funding.
A total of AU$4,500 is available, with a maximum of AU$1,500 available per applicant.
| | | | The call for expressions of interest for our 2026 Gary Bouma Workshop Program is now open. TASA can fund up to two workshops at AU$5000.00 each.
Successful workshops will advance research within sociology and showcase TASA as the face of sociological/interdisciplinary research in the region; engaging with issues of national concern; advancement of knowledge; support innovative ideas, and, the potential of feeding into policy and practice development.
Expression of interest deadline: July 14th.
| | | TASA Awards currently open for nominations include:
Nominations for these four awards close on 17 July.
Due to the assessment process, nominations for these two awards close earlier on 15 May.
Nominees will be notified of the outcome in August (for most awards) and October (for the JMA). Award recipients will be formally announced at our TASA 2025 Conference Dinner in November.
| New: Senior Lecturer/Lecturer, Gender, Sexuality and Diversity Studies
La Trobe University, Bundoora campus
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences seeks to appoint an outstanding academic to a continuing full-time position as either Lecturer (Level B) or Senior Lecturer (Level C) in Gender, Sexuality, and Diversity Studies. This role encompasses Teaching, Research and Academic service.
| | Scholarship Opportunities
| New: Tackling the consumption of sexual violence on screen
PhD Scholarship, Flinders University
The full-time PhD candidate may be based in Adelaide or elsewhere in Australia – relocation to Adelaide is not required. The project will involve some domestic and international travel.
| | Other Events, News & Opportunities | New: Can schools achieve informed consent with digital technology?
Digital Child & ACMI
Tuesday, May 20th, 5:30pm 7:30pm, AEST, Melbourne
The panel will discuss competing tensions and ask with increasing demands for digitalisation, is it possible for schools to actually achieve informed consent?
This is a free in-person event with canapes and drinks, and the opportunity to chat to the panellists, happening immediately after the discussion.
| | The Male Complaint
Join fellow member Simon Copland discussing his latest book.
May 22nd, 5:30pm - 7:00pm AEST, Acton, Canberra
| | | A resource for postcolonial/southern sociology
For colleagues wanting to bring global-South perspectives into courses on sociological theory, gender, migration, development, social change, education: take a look at a new book which includes all those topics, in social thought from South-East Asia, South Asia, Africa, MENA, Eastern Europe, South America. Has some useful teaching notes, and a glossary for students. It's TTheory Reimagined: Voices of Sociologists from Around the World, eds Rianka Roy, Anjana Narayan, Melanie Heath and Bandana Purkayastha, Frontpage Publications, 2025. | The Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Partnership Program (JFIPP Research Fellowship)
The Research Fellowship is designed to promote international research and collaborative activities on common policy issues that require cooperation and engagement within and beyond the Indo-Pacific region, with the purpose of building partnerships and intellectual networks in the Indo-Pacific region.
| New: The Western Sydney University Challenging Racism Project (CRP) and University of Melbourne Anti-Racism Hallmark Research Initiative (ARHRI) are holding a cross-disciplinary one-day conference
Friday November 7th, Western Sydney University, Parramatta City campus
The conference will be free to attend.
This event will bring together researchers and practitioners who are undertaking work related to anti-racism. This will be an opportunity for us all to learn more about each other’s work, build networks, and explore the potential for future collaborations.
Abstract submission deadline: August 1st. Read on...
Development in Turbulent Time
20th Annual International & Interdisciplinary Conference of International Partners
University Luigj Gurakuqi Shkoder, ALBANIA
14-15 November 2025
Abstract submission deadline: 14 September. Read on...
Centering Care Across the Life Course
SAVE THE DATE
Concordia University in Montreal Canada
June 17-20, 2026
Submissions open in July and close November 1, 2025.
Caring During Crisis: Navigating Risk and Uncertainty in Health, Care and Beyond
European Sociological Association, Research Network 22 (Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty).
Wednesday 29 - 30 October
Campus Woudestein, Rotterdam
Keynote speakers include fellow member Jens Zinn
Abstract submission deadline: May 31st. Read on...
| | Senses & Emotions
Online, October 4th & 5th
Sociologists have long understood that the social world it not a solely rational place: it is messy, it is interactional and it is felt. Emotion management has a key role in supporting both work done to nonhuman animals (e.g. animal testing, fHarming, slaughter), and for nonhuman animals (e.g. activism, caretaking, critical animal research).
Submission deadline: May 31st. 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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President (Kim): president@tasa.org.au
Admin (Sally): admin@tasa.org.au
Events (Penny): events@tasa.org.au
Membership (Ali): membership@tasa.org.au
Indigenous (John): indigenousmembership@tasa.org.au
Thematic Groups (Naomi): thematicgroups@tasa.org.au
Postgraduates (Molly): postgraduates@tasa.org.au | |