Dear ~~first_name~~,
This week, we are delighted to share and celebrate outstanding achievements within our community, with congratulations to two former TASA Presidents. Raewyn Connell has been awarded the Kohli Prize for Sociology, a significant international recognition of her contribution to the discipline, and Dan Woodman has been appointed interim Vice President (Publications) of the International Sociological Association.
We also welcome four new members to TASA and highlight recent publications from across our membership.
A reminder that there are three days remaining to submit panel proposals for our 2026 TASA Conference.
We look forward to today’s TASA Thursdays onboarding session, which provides an opportunity for new and existing members to connect and learn more about engaging with the Association. All welcome.
As always, thank you for being part of our TASA community.
Warm regards,
TASA Team
| We extend our warm congratulations to TASA member Raewyn Connell, former TASA President (1987-1988), who has been announced as the 2026 laureate of the Kohli Prize for Sociology. Her pioneering approach to gender as a social structure – especially her research on masculinities – and her perspectives on “southern” sociology have made her internationally renowned and deeply influential across diverse intellectual traditions and global contexts.
The accessibility of her writing has been instrumental in reaching both scholarly and non-academic audiences, significantly contributing to a broader public understanding of key sociological issues.
An award ceremony will be held at the Berlin Social Science Center on November 3–4, 2026.
| | | We also extend our warm congratulations to fellow member Dan Woodman, former TASA President (2017-2020), on his election as interim Vice-President for Publications of the International Sociological Association (ISA). The role opened following a resignation, with the ISA’s statues calling for the current Executive Committee of the ISA to vote for a replacement from among its members. Dan was nominated by the ISA President Geoffrey Pleyers and elected to the role. He will serve through to July 2027 when the next ISA elections will be held at the ISA World Congress.
| | 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.
| | | Welcome to this week's new TASA members, Martyna Gliniecka, Michael Hartup, Helena Nord, and Adhul Jacob Sunil. It's great to have you with us.
| Last week we sent a direct email announcing the reopening of nominations for the Raewyn Connell Prize. The new deadline is now April 30th.
If relevant, we encourage you to consider nominating an eligible first book and to reach out to colleagues or others in your networks who may have published their first book in 2024 or 2025. In case you're not aware, publishers usually cover the cost of books for prize entries.
For the full details, please visit the prize webpage here.
Nominations are now open for the The Most Distinguished Peer-Reviewed Article Published by an Early Career Researcher. This year, the panel are accepting papers published in the previous three years (i.e. 2023, 2024 or 2025). The nomination process requires the person submitting the nomination (or the nominee, if self-nominating) to prepare a written statement of between 150-200 words addressed to the selection panel. This statement will be considered when assessing the article against the criteria below.
The style and format of the statement is open - we encourage innovation! - but it will need to address two key points:
- Originality: the statement must demonstrate how and why the article makes an original contribution to Australian sociology
- Evidence of impact: the statement must demonstrate impact (on the discipline, in the media, in public debate and ideas, or on citations, public policy, or further research opportunities). You may also comment on why future impact is likely to be high.
The article will be assessed based on both the 150 - 200 word statement and the following criteria:
- Quality (e.g. thoroughness, high skill, eloquence) 20%;
- Contribution to sociological thought (e.g. pushing forward) 20%;
- Originality (e.g. innovative application/generation of theory) 20%;
- Clarity (e.g. well-written, clearly organised, presented) 20%; and
- Impact (e.g. policy 5%, practice 5%, citations 5%, new theory or a new understanding of an existing theory 5%) 20%.
We encourage Sociology Honours and Masters coordinators across the country to put forward nominations for their top-achieving 2025 students. The award is a meaningful way to recognise emerging sociological talent and celebrate academic excellence within our discipline.
Further information and the nomination link can be found here. | | 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 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.
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Journals
Op-ed / Commentary
Community Outreach
| Fellow member Simone Marino recently performed with the InCasa Choir La Seconda Gioventù (The Second Youth) at the City of Bayswater, Perth, WA, Harmony Day event on 18 March. The performance forms part of his ongoing community-engaged research on music, ageing, dementia, and cultural identity among migrant populations.
Following the performance, Simone was contacted by SBS, who have expressed interest in interviewing him about this work.
Some recent media features and outputs related to his research include:
| | 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.
| | | 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.
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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.
| | | 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...
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
| Opportunity for ECRs and HDRs
ABC Radio National is once again searching for Australia’s next generation of inspiring research communicators, to take part in this year’s ABC TOP 5 media residencies.
Past TASA member recipients include Barbara Barbosa Neves and Julia Cook.
The ABC TOP 5 gives 15 early career and PhD scholars (five per residency), the chance to spend two-weeks with some of the ABC’s leading journalists and producers
ABC TOP 5 participants receive intensive two-week media training and practical experience, and the aim of the scheme is to enable the selected academics to be the best communicators they can be of their specialist research.
| UNSW Social Policy Research Centre’s (SPRC) short course, Understanding Poverty, Inequality and Social Disadvantage in Australia, is returning in 2026 following three sold-out iterations.
5 May to 23 June
| 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.
| 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.
| Panels
Provocations: What will we eat in the future?
RMIT, Swanston Street, Melbourne
1 April. 6:30pm - 7:45pm AEDT.
As climate change, population growth, and ecological collapse reshape how we produce and consume food, we need to think outside the (lunch) box to find solutions.
Fellow member Natalie Jovanovski will be one of the panellists.
| 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.
1 April. 3-5pm AEDT.
Fellow member Phillipa Bellemore will be one of the workshop facilitators.
| Seminars
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
New: 10th Biennial Social Science Methodology Conference
November 24-26, University of Sydney
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...
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.
| Call for Editors
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.
Expression of Interest deadline: 20 April. Read on...
| Call for Submissions
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.
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...
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