 | Dear ~~first_name~~,
We are delighted to open this week’s newsletter with some outstanding news about the Journal of Sociology, which has achieved its highest-ever Impact Factor of 3.0 and moved into Q1 ranking in the Sociology category. Congratulations to Editors-in-Chief Signe Ravn and Ash Barnwell, the editorial team, authors, reviewers, and the broader TASA community whose work continues to contribute to the journal’s strength and impact.
In other news, please note that today’s TASA Thursdays event has been postponed, with a new date to be confirmed.
We would also like to update members on recent disruptions affecting TASAweb. Over the past week, the site has experienced intermittent slow loading and reduced availability due to a distributed denial-of-service attack affecting our website platform provider, Club Express. This type of attack involves an attempt to overwhelm systems with excessive traffic. Importantly, it affects site performance but does not compromise data. Member information, payment details, and account credentials remain fully secure. Club Express is working hard to resolve the issue, and while some intermittent issues remain, the site is performing more reliably today. All sites hosted on the platform have been affected.
Back to newsletter content, a number of important deadlines are approaching: expressions of interest for the Mentorship Program close today; Social Sciences Week funding applications close tomorrow; expressions of interest for the next Editor(s) of Health Sociology Review close on Monday; and early bird and presenter registrations for TASA 2026 close on 28 June.
We also remind members that nominations for all Executive positions will open on 29 June.
We are pleased to welcome new member Alston Ng to TASA.
This edition also includes recent member publications, and an update from the Sociology of Youth Thematic Group, which has released five 2026 dates for its “Catch up & Write” sessions.
| TASA Key Dates at a glance
|
- 18 June -POSTPONED: TASA Thursdays: Unserviceable’ by Design: Feminist Sociology & the Corporeal Politics of Women’s Military Service
- 19 June - Social Sciences Week funding applications
- 22 June - Health Sociology Review editorship expressions of interest
- 23 June - Retired Career Stage Group catch-up
- 28 June - TASA 2026 Early Bird and Presenter registrations
- 29 June - TASA Election nominations open
- 1 July - Social Stratification Thematic Group one-day symposium abstract submissions
- 17 July - Gary Bouma Memorial Workshop Funding
- 17 July - Distinguished Service to Australian Sociology Award
- 17 July - Outstanding Service to TASA Award
- 17 July - Outstanding Service to the Teaching of Sociology Award
- 17 July - Sociology in Action Award
- 20 July - TASA Election nominations: close Midday (12pm) AEST
- 20/21st August - TASA Executive Meeting
- 28 August - Social Stratification Thematic Group one-day symposium: Perceptions and Indicators of Social Class in Australia
- 23rd-27th November - TASA 2026
| TASA 2026 - Registrations open
| Registrations for TASA 2026 close on the 28th of June. Above is an image of the shell program. You can also access it on the program page here. Note, Post Grad Day, some workshops and the Welcome Reception will be held on the Monday. Concurrent sessions and other activities/events will be held from Tuesday to Friday.
This year's conference is in-person only.
The available registration categories and pricing are available on the conference website here.
If you plan on attending, and presenting, you will need to register by the 28th of June.
| TASA 2026 Pending Election
| 2026 is an election year for TASA's Executive Committee.
The Executive consists of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Postgraduate Portfolio Leader and up to four Portfolio Leaders as voting members, as well as the Immediate Past President and one representative from the editorial team of each of TASA’s publications as non-voting ex-officio members.
The following positions will be open for nominations:
- President
- Vice-President
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Indigenous
- Public Sociology
- Equity, Inclusion and Advocacy
- TASA Groups (Thematic Groups and Career Stage Groups)
- Postgraduate
If you are interested in nominating for any of the above roles, you will need two TASA members to support your nomination by signing the nominator form (electronically or by hand).
Nominations will open on Monday 29 June. On that day, members will receive an email containing links to the candidate and nominator forms.
Please note that expressions of interest for the Digital Publications Editor role will be open at the same time.
| Welcome to this week's new TASA member Alston Ng! And welcome back to renewing members. If you are encountering any issues with the renewal process, please do email Ali at membership@tasa.org.au, any time.
| |
Journals
Kyaw, A. T., Hanckel, B., Ranganathan, M., & Zimmerman, C. (2026). Not Just Children, Not Just Workers: An intersectional analysis of violence against child domestic workers in Myanmar. Child Protection and Practice, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chipro.2026.100323
He, J. Y., Liu, L., & Chen, Y. (2026). Power Interplays on Maternal Bodies: Representing Childbirth and Maternal Agency in Chinese Documentary Film. Women’s Studies in Communication, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2026.2659631
Op-ed / Commentary
Simone Marino (14 June, 2026) InCasa (Aged Care) Choir La Seconda Gioventù (The Second Youth), a choir of Italian migrants in Fremantle, and explored how culturally meaningful songs, first language, and shared musical experiences can foster memory, social connection, belonging, and dignity in later life, supporting culturally diverse communities living with dementia. Channel 10 News Perth.
| Funding
As announced in last week’s newsletter, TASA has set aside $5,000 in funding for 2026 Social Sciences Week events. TASA is offering grants of up to $1,000, exclusively for TASA members, to support public-facing events during Social Sciences Week 2026.
Applications close TOMORROW Friday 19 June.
For the full details and the application form link, visit TASAweb 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.
For details, and the application form link, visit TASAweb here.
Distinguished Service to Australian Sociology Award
This award is made to a TASA member who has demonstrated outstanding, significant and sustained service to Australian sociology over many years. While not necessarily a lifetime achievement award, candidates for the Distinguished Service Award would usually be nearing the end of their careers.
In all cases the quality of the service is the determining criterion, rather than the quantity alone.
Outstanding Service to TASA Award
This honour is accorded to a TASA member who has demonstrated an outstanding level of participation in and promotion of TASA over a number of years. There are many ways in which this can occur, but in all cases the quality of the service is the determining criterion, rather than the quantity alone.
Outstanding Service to the Teaching of Sociology Award
This award celebrates outstanding contributions to enhancing the pedagogy, practice or outcomes of teaching and learning sociology in Australia. It recognises contributions at the disciplinary level (rather than acknowledging excellence in teaching within the classroom or institutions). Examples of disciplinary-level contributions include innovations in teaching that increase the impact of sociology teaching beyond university contexts, improve student access, experience and outcomes, or inform disciplinary approaches to learning and teaching. Evidence of these achievements may be demonstrated through feedback from students or peers, and/or through publications (peer-reviewed, policy or general), presentations, media, or other relevant indicators.
Sociology in Action Award
This award recognizes contributions to the practice of sociology outside of academic settings. It is conferred on a TASA member who has made an outstanding contribution to sociological practice in Australia.
In this context, outstanding contributions to sociology in action highlight the value and impact of sociological methods and theories to society. This includes both broad social issues, as well as more focused issues for industry, government, business or community sectors.
| TASA Gift Membership and your workplace | Are your colleagues yet to join TASA? Are you teaching or supervising students who would benefit from connecting with sociologists working in diverse settings?
Your institution, research centre or workplace may wish to use TASA's Gift Membership program to kickstart someone's TASA membership. Gift memberships are a great option for smaller amounts of unspent funds in your budget as we approach the end of the financial year.
TASA members can log into TASAweb and purchase gift memberships via their profile screen. Alternatively, email membership@tasa.org.au to learn more about membership fees and categories, and payment by invoice.
If you are having issues with your login, please do email Ali - membership@tasa.org.au - she can fix log in problems for you!
| The next online meet-up of our Retired Career Stage Group is scheduled for 11am AEST this Tuesday 23 June. If you'd like to be part of this welcoming and stimulating group, please do email Ali at membership@tasa.org.au to be added to the Retired Career Stage Group and receive meeting details.
| TASA Mentorship Program 2026-27
| TASA's 2026 Mentorship Program
Expressions of Interest Close TODAY Thursday, 18 June.
This 6-month program will foster professional growth and development. Mentor/mentee pairs are encouraged to meet fortnightly or monthly (6–12 sessions in total), either online, in person, or through a mix of both. The program includes online sessions aimed at helping both mentors and mentees get the most out of the experience.
If you know someone who would benefit from our mentorship program, but who is not yet a TASA member, please do encourage them to email membership@tasa.org.au to discuss applying. We'd love to see some new members taking up this opportunity.
Key Dates:
- July: Acceptance onto program announced
- 4 August: Online Onboarding for mentors and mentees
- 25 August: Online Professional Development Workshop 1
- 13 October: Online Midway Check-in for mentors and mentees
- 9 February: Online Wrap up for mentors and mentees
Workshop dates may change due to unforeseen circumstances. Webinar presentations (excluding Q&A) will be recorded and made available privately for program participants who can’t attend live.
PLUS
Online Professional Development Workshop 2, details TBC
Optional in-person meet up for those mentor/mentee pairs attending TASA 2026
Ready to Get Involved?
Please click the appropriate orange link below to submit your Expression of Interest. If you’d like to be both a mentee and a mentor, please complete both forms.
| | THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED
Please note that the TASA Thursday webinar, ‘Unserviceable’ by Design: Feminist Sociology and the Corporeal Politics of Women’s Military Service, originally scheduled for Thursday 18 June 2026, has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank registered attendees for their understanding.
A new date for Natalie Merryman’s presentation will be confirmed shortly, and all registered attendees will be notified once details are available.
| | | New: 2026 Monthly ‘Catch Up & Write’ Sessions
Hosted by the Sociology of Youth Thematic Group
TheSociology of Youth thematic group are excited to continue hosting virtual ‘Catch Up & Write’ sessions on the last Monday of every month from 1:00pm to 3:30pm to ensure you all have a dedicated space to write and connect.
If you are interested in joining them, please refer to the below 2026 schedule to register for the sessions you would like to attend. While the writing group is hosted by the Sociology of Youth thematic group, they welcome other TASA members whose research engages with youth in interesting ways. The more the merrier!
2026 SCHEDULE: ‘CATCH UP & WRITE’ SESSIONS
Register to receive Zoom links + save the dates in your calendar!
ONLINE 1:00PM TO 3:30PM AEST
MONDAY 29 JUNE | REGISTER HERE*
MONDAY 27 JULY | REGISTER HERE*
MONDAY 31 AUGUST | REGISTER HERE*
MONDAY 28 SEPTEMBER | REGISTER HERE*
MONDAY 26 OCTOBER | REGISTER HERE*
* Please note each month’s ‘Catch Up and Write’ session requires a separate registration as each session has a different Zoom link *
The Sociology of Youth team look forward to seeing you at an upcoming session!
If possible, please give the new TASA Sociology of Youth LinkedIn page a follow and share amongst your networks.
| The Social Stratification Thematic Group, convened by Jenny Chesters, invites abstracts for a one-day Symposium, Perceptions and Indicators of Social Class in Australia, to be held at the University of Melbourne on Friday 28 August.
This free event, with a keynote address by E/Professor, and long term TASA member, Mark Western, will explore contemporary debates around social class, inequality, education, housing, healthcare, and family background in Australia.
Travel bursaries available. Abstract submission deadline: 5pm, 1 July. For the full details, read on... | | | Leaving Religion and the Politics of Nonreligion
This symposium, hosted by the Sociology of Religion thematic group & held alongside the 50th anniversary of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney, invites researchers to explore nonreligion as a subject in its own right. Papers are invited on themes including deconversion, religious trauma and recovery, ex-member communities, post-religious life, the politics of nonreligion, the “Mark No Religion” campaign, and the complexities of measuring nonreligion.
University of Sydney, Friday 23 October, hybrid.
Please send a 250-word abstract and short bio by 25 June to Katja Strehle at k.strehle@westernsydney.edu.au and Samantha Hauw at s.hauw@deakin.edu.au.
| | | | Theorising migration, settlement and diversity in unsettled times
Symposium Keynote: Amanda Wise
TASA’s Migration, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism and Social Theory Thematic Groups invite submissions for a half-day symposium exploring the theoretical foundations, current developments and future directions of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism research. Designed as a collaborative space for scholars at all career stages, the symposium will examine how theory is emerging, contested and reworked through empirical practice.
Monday 23 November at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Some TASA member bursaries are available.
| | | Journal of Sociology, 62 (1)
| Health Sociology Review, Volume 35, Number 1 (March 2026).
A special issue on, ‘Healthy’ Food Practices: Moving Beyond Healthy Choices and Food Systems, is guest edited by Natalie Jovanovski and Bhavna Middha.
All articles in this special issue are available here.
| 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 THIS Monday 22nd June, 2026.
The full details of the call are available on TASAweb here.
| Scholarship Opportunities
| New: Gender-based violence in the context of work: Reporting, help-seeking and access to justice
This is a interdisciplinary research project examining gender-based violence in the context of work, with a particular focus on how structurally disadvantaged workers experience reporting processes, help-seeking pathways and access to justice in NSW.
Wollongong University
Media Representation & Public Perception of RNA Vaccines and Therapeutics in Australia
PhD Scholarship
University of Newcastle
Working with fellow member Caragh Brosnan
Creating Safer Sport Communities from Rural to Urban Australia
This is part of an ARC Discovery project Creating Safer Sport Communities from Rural to Urban Australia
The PhD will be housed within Griffith University’s Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Arts, Education and Law group and the Department of Tourism and Marketing, Griffith Business School.
| |
New: Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong
Chief Executive Officer
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
Experience in research, higher education, public administration or a related field will be highly regarded.
Lecturer in Geography, Sociology and Political Science
Hong Kong Baptist University
The role includes teaching courses in human geography, physical geography, public administration, general sociology, statistics, research methods, and advanced topics in quantitative analysis across these disciplines.
| Other Events, News & Opportunities
| New: 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.
| Workshops Program Funding
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
The Academy Workshops Program offers Australian social scientists financial assistance to host multidisciplinary workshops which aim to advance research and policy agendas on nationally important issues.
Up to AU$9,000.00 per workshop.
| Symposiums
The Regulation of Children’s Use of Digital Media in the Asia Pacific
Hybrid (Melbourne city), 17 June, 9am - 5:30pm AEST
This symposium brings together a selection of scholars, policymakers, civil society organisations and industry experts from across the Asia-Pacific region, such as Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam, to discuss the historical development, current landscape, challenges, and future directions of regulating children’s use of digital media.
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.
Webinars
New: Building Gender Competency
DASSH
Online
Tuesday, 21 July, 11am - 12pm AEST
For details, and to register, read on...
|  | Conferences
Global Sociology in Turbulent Times
International Sociological Association
XXI ISA World Congress of Sociology
4 to 10 July 2027, Gwangju, Korea
Note, the Call for Sessions deadline, for Research Committees, Thematic Groups & Working Groups is June 25th. Read on...
The deadline for Integrative Sessions is 28 September. Integrative Sessions are semi-plenaries that engage a debate on the Congress theme. Read on...
Who Cares? Imagining Feminist Solutions to Australia's Childcare Crisis
Centre for Policy Futures UQ & The Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association
Online, Wed, 24 June, 9:30am - Thu, 25 June, 4:30pm AEST
For the full details, and to register, read on...
What is Transience?
Hybrid, Thursday, 11 February 2027
RMIT University
10th Biennial Social Science Methodology Conference
November 24-26, University of Sydney
| Call for Submissions
New: Indigenous Queer Studies in the Global South: Theory, Method and Lived Experience
Together with A/Prof Madi Day and Dr Kim Spurway, Corrinne Sullivan is co-editing a forthcoming collection, Indigenous Queer Studies in the Global South: Theory, Method and Lived Experience, under contract with Anthem Press. They are currently inviting contributions from scholars, practitioners, and contributors whose work and lived experience are shaping this field.
The volume seeks to foreground Indigenous queer lives, knowledge systems, and methodological innovation across the Global South, bringing together theoretical, empirical, and practice-based work. In line with this commitment, we are working towards a collection in which chapters are first-authored by Indigenous scholars.
So Fi Zine is once again open for your submissions of sociological flash fiction, poetry and visual art.
Submission deadline: 30 June. 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.
| 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
Indigenous (Morgan): indigenoussociology@tasa.org.au
Digital Publications Editor (Roger): digitalpe@tasa.org.au
Thematic Groups (Molly): thematicgroups@tasa.org.au
Postgraduates (Brooklyn): postgraduates@tasa.org.au | |