 | Dear ~~first_name~~,
This week’s newsletter brings a number of important updates and opportunities from across the Association.
We share an Executive update from President Kim Humphery (circulated to members yesterday), along with news of recent portfolio transitions. We also celebrate the latest issue of the Journal of Sociology, marking 60 years of the Association’s flagship journal, and include the recording of last week’s TASA Thursdays session, Researching Sensitive Topics: Ethics, Care, and Boundaries, which explored the practical and ethical complexities of working in challenging research spaces with speakers fellow member Laura Simpson Reeves and colleague Joel Hollier. We're also pleased to feature a 2025 bursary reflection from Bella Choo.
You’ll find a call for nominations for TASA's Honours/Masters Student Award, key dates for other TASA Awards and funding (including the $5,000 Gary Bouma Memorial Workshop Program), alongside upcoming TASA Thursdays and Thematic Group events. We also highlight members' publications, new job opportunities and events, welcome new members, and introduce new Thematic Group Conveners.
A reminder that panel proposals for TASA 2026 close on 29 March, with general abstract submissions closing on 24 April.
For enquiries, please contact Penny regarding Events (including TASA 2026), Ali for Membership and Career Stage Group matters, and Sally for all other TASA queries.
We hope you enjoy the read.
Warm regards,
TASA Team
| Following the resignation of Vice President Shaun Wilson due to work commitments, the Executive has elected Naomi Smith as Vice President for the remainder of the term, in accordance with TASA’s Constitution. We thank Shaun sincerely for his contribution to TASA and his leadership of last year’s Melbourne conference.
To ensure continuity ahead of the July Executive elections, two portfolio adjustments have been made, including Molly Saunders moving into the Thematic Group Portfolio and Brooklyn Donnelly, introduced below, stepping into the Postgraduate Portfolio. You can read the full letter from TASA President, Kim Humphery, here. Details of the full, current, TASA Executive Committee can be accessed on TASAweb here.
| | Brooklyn is a PhD Candidate in the School of Social Sciences at University of Tasmania. Her PhD research explores regional and rural access to abortion care in Australia. Her broader research interests include women's health, gender, and feminist sociologies. Brooklyn, who has been a member of TASA's postgraduate sub-committee, is excited to step into the role of Postgraduate Portfolio Leader and continue to support TASA's Postgrad community.
| | | | TASA's Gary Bouma Memorial Workshop Funding, for 2027 events, is open for applications. 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.
Funding of AU$5,000 (per workshop) available for workshops to be held in Australia.
Applications close on 17 July, 2026.
| | | | TASA THURSDAYS | 12 MARCH | 12:30PM AEDT
Join us next week for our TASA Thursdays webinar on 12 March (12:30–1:30pm AEDT) with Dorinda 't Hart, Outside and Inside the Arena of “Intensive Mothering.” Drawing on post-abortion narratives from women in Perth, this presentation examines how the ideal of “intensive mothering” is reproduced through processes of Othering that divide the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mother. Introducing the concept of the “arena of Othering,” Dorinda offers new insights into abortion discourse, motherhood, and the possibility of resisting these boundaries through “good enough” mothering. Dorinda was our 2025 winner of the Early Career Research Best Paper Award.
| | | | TASA THURSDAYS | 26 MARCH | 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.
| This week we welcome two new members, Sungshin Bae and Lillian Tame, as well as all of our renewing members. We really appreciate people taking the time to renew their membership at this exceptionally busy time of year. Don't worry, if you overlook your renewal we'll send you a personal no-pressure reminder, we don't want to lose you.
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In case you are not aware, we also offer Gift Memberships. If you know a student or early career sociologist, or anyone else for that matter, who would benefit from being part of TASA, you can introduce them to the Association with a Gift Membership. Our Postgraduate and Professional Tier 1 memberships are $57.51 per year.
You can purchase a Gift Membership directly via your profile page in your member login, or you can contact Ali at membership@tasa.org.au who will be happy to assist you.
| | | Dan Woodman & Steven Threadgold (2026) This is Sociology 2nd Edition: A Short Introduction, Sage Publications.
| This book provides an engaging, concise introduction. It covers a diverse range of theorists from the rich history of sociology and shows how thinking sociologically can help us understand our lives, the groups we are part of, and the rapid social changes and inequalities that shape contemporary societies. The book includes compelling international examples and a range of theoretical perspectives from across the world, a brand new chapter on Digital Lives, covering a range of topics from filter bubbles and memes to digital inequalities as well as the latest approaches emerging from efforts to build an inclusive global sociology, equipped for the challenges of the 21st Century. Read on...
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Journal Articles
Mansouri, F., Weng, E., & Al-Deen, T.J. (2026). Digital activism and intergenerational perspectives on social justice and racial equity among multicultural youth. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2025.2610646 (open access).
Book Reviews
Op-ed / Commentary
| Each year, TASA recognises outstanding achievement in Sociology through the Honours/Masters Student Award, presented to the top Honours or Masters student at each Australian university for the previous year.
We warmly encourage Sociology Honours/Masters coordinators to nominate their highest-achieving Honours/Master student for 2025. This award is an important way to celebrate emerging sociological talent and academic excellence across the country.
Further information and the nomination link can be found here.
| 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.
| 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.
| | THURSDAY 9TH APRIL | 12:30PM AEST
Join the Social Theory thematic group conveners, Jack Barbalet & Gino Orticio for a first in a series of 'social theory' webinars on 9 April (12:30–1:30pm AEST) with Brad West (University of Adelaide). In Learning from C. Wright Mills on the Causes of World War Three, Brad revisits Mills’ overlooked 1958 text to rethink military metaphysics and the contemporary military-industrial complex. Reflecting on renewed Great Power competition and neoliberal transformations of civil-military relations, this timely session invites sociologists to reconsider the military as a central social institution.
| | | Groups Seeking Co-Conveners
| Two of our Thematic Groups are still 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 are delighted to introduce the new conveners of the Social Theory Thematic Group, Jack Barbalet and Gino Orticio. Jack and Gino bring a wealth of experience and insight to the group, combining deep knowledge of social theory with fresh perspectives to energise discussion and collaboration. Together, they will lead the group in fostering connections across institutions, supporting members at all career stages, and creating space for innovative scholarship and debate in social theory.
|  | | Jack Barbalet researches and publishes across the broad spectrum of sociological theory, making contributions in the areas of classical theory (Marx, Weber, Adam Smith), contemporary themes (boredom, emotions, trust), and reform-era Chinese society (family, guanxi, ritual). He has been employed by universities in Australia (ANU, Western Sydney University, ACU), England (University of Leicester), and Hong Kong (HKBU), and is currently a professorial fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. A longtime member of TASA, Jack enthusiastically looks forward to convening the Social Theory Thematic Group.
|  | Gino Orticio is a sociologist and educator who has returned to a full-time academic role centred on teaching and research in the social sciences. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory/ material semiosis, he examines how power, technology, and institutions are assembled through everyday sociotechnical practice, with particular attention to disruptions and breakdowns as sites where competing knowledges become discernible. As Lecturer (Level B) at Excelsia University College in Sydney, he recently presented The Politics of Broken Things: Digital Infrastructure Breakdowns and Ontological Politics at the European Sociological Association RN15 Conference, University of Split, Croatia. His current research extends these concerns across three intersecting research areas: tracing transcultural and gendered violence through meta-narrative reviews on female foeticide; theorising precarity in the lives of temporary migrants; and examining translocal indigeneity within diasporic networks in Australia.
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We are also delighted to welcome Jenny Chesters as the new Convener of the Social Stratification Thematic Group. Jenny brings deep expertise in inequality and life course research, along with a strong commitment to collaborative scholarship. We look forward to the energy and insight she will bring to the group during her term as convener.
|  | Jenny Chesters is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD was awarded by the University of Queensland in 2009. She is currently a Chief Investigator on the ARC-funded Life Patterns project. Although her research typically draws on analysis of quantitative data, she has also published from her analysis of qualitative data. She has conducted analysis of multiple Australian longitudinal datasets including HILDA, LSAY and Life Patterns as well as longitudinal datasets from Germany, Switzerland and Ireland. She has published widely in Q1 journals, books and reports. Her recent publications include: Neoliberalism, Inequality and Education: Inequity by Design (2026); Economics, Politics and Governance During COVID-19: Experiences of the Global South (2025); Research Handbook on Transitions into Adulthood (2024). Her research interests include social stratification, inequity in schooling systems, and transitions between education and employment throughout the life course.
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The latest special issue of the Journal of Sociology is titled Journal of Sociology: 60 years on. In this anniversary editorial Editors-in-Chief Ashley Barnwell and Signe Ravin (picture left) look back to the early days of the journal as they sought to honour its history and legacy. They outline the contents of the special anniversary features curated for this issue, including a section of shorter articles engaging with Alan Davies’ article on “children’s outlooks” in the first issue of the journal; an interview with Professor Fran Collyer about the history of sociology in Australia; and a section featuring six shorter articles by current PhD students engaging with articles from the journal’s rich archive. Lastly, they introduce the standard articles also published in this issue: four original articles which all centre Indigenous lives.‘
All articles of the special issue are available here.
| | | 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.
| New: Visiting Professor of Australian Studies 2027
Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University
Commencement of position: February 2027
Conclusion of position: December 2027
Closing date for applications: 13 April. Read on...
New: Sociology Professor with tenure, Associate Professor with tenure or Assistant Professor with tenure or Assistant Professor(tenure-track) or Associate Professor (tenure-track)
Faculty of International Research and Education, Waseda University, Japan
Closing date for applications: 31 March. Read on....
| Other Events, News & Opportunities
| International Women's Day
| New: Celebrate International Women’s Day 2026 with the Australian Women's & Gender Studies Association (AWGSA) at No Panel, No Pressure, No Prep! — a relaxed, online catch‑up designed to foster connection without the usual expectations. Join AWGSA members and executive for an informal hour of conversation, reflection, and community. There are no presentations, no panels, and no preparation required — just show up as you are. This welcoming event is open to all women, gender‑diverse people, and allies.
| National survey seeking participants
| Sport and physical activity experiences of women/girls/nonbinary people with disability
The survey is intended for woman/girl/nonbinary person with disability aged 16+, regardless of how much sport you do or do not play.
| 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.
| 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.
| 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, 17 June
Abstract submission deadline: 15 March. Read on...
| New: The Rechnitz Fund Grant Program
Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
This research funding program is intended to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to develop their careers as researchers across the social sciences.
Application deadline: 17 April. 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.
| 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.
| New: Sport, Politics, and Society
The Tunisian-Mediterranean Association for Historical, Social and Economic Studies (TMA for HSES) and the Tunisian World Center for Studies, Research, and Development (TWC for SRD)
December 1, 2, 3 / 2026 (Beja - Tunisia).
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: 15 April. Read on...
BSA Annual Conference 2026: 75 Years of Sociology
University of Edinburgh, UK
8-10 April.
| Special Issues - call for submissions
| 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
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 (Molly): thematicgroups@tasa.org.au
Postgraduates (Brooklyn): postgraduates@tasa.org.au | |