The Impact of Opportunity: Reflections of a TASA 2024 Bursary Recipient by Callum Stewart.
The theme for this year’s conference, Living Now: Social Worlds, Political Landscapes, leapt out at me when it was announced. It was like the theme was designed for my research, at the intersection of sociology and politics. It spoke directly to my specific interests in chronopolitics – the politics of time, histories, presents, and futurities, processes of becoming and possibilities for action. I was ready to take up the challenge, embrace an irreverence for the divisions between social, cultural, and political analysis, and to interrogate the politics of the discipline itself. I was keen to put myself and my research out there, and to be challenged, intrigued, and encouraged by my peers. TASA 2024 did not disappoint.
I was, perhaps, a little ambitious presenting two papers at TASA 2024, but I wanted to make the most of the opportunity! I was grateful to present my first paper as part of an excellent and thought-provoking critical Indigenous studies panel, which included my postgrad colleague Asha Steer and her excellent work on the racialisation of Indigenous women in sport. My paper, titled The Chronopolitics of the Cultural Interface, presented the doctrine of tempus nullius (that’s right, the doctrine of uninhabited time) as a condition of White settler claims to the future. It read and re-presented Torres Strait Islander theorist Martin Nakata’s Cultural Interface theory as a sovereign Indigenous response to this doctrine. I was really happy with how this presentation went, and appreciated the great questions and feedback.
My second paper, titled The Presence of Indigenous Sovereignty, was part of a diverse social theory panel, with some overlapping questions surrounding the land, sea, and time. In this paper, I drew on Michi Saagiig Nishaabeg theorist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s radical resurgence framework to argue that social theory ought to begin from the presence of Indigenous sovereignty. Unfortunately this paper generally received less engagement. It was a pretty dense presentation in just 15 minutes, so I’m taking that as a lesson in making my work more accessible for a general sociology audience.
The keynotes from Professor Shakuntala Banaji and Dr Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes really stood out to me. Professor Banaji’s presentation on racialised hate in the media spanned an immense range of historical and geopolitical contexts, yet remained deeply insightful in the connections it drew between mainstream and social media and political violence. Dr Woldeyes interrogated the construction of the ‘human’ in human rights; his reconstruction of the past, present, and future as already here in Afro-Indigenous futurisms is both powerful and thought-provoking for my own research. I hope that TASA will continue to foreground the work of Black, Indigenous, and other racialised theorists often marginalised in the discipline. These keynotes give me something to aspire to.
TASA 2024 was a brilliant experience. From the postgrad introductory day, to panel sessions on risk (shout out to Eyram Ivy Sedzro’s great paper on migrant networks and social media), to random chats over morning tea, TASA 2024 was a brilliant opportunity to engage with emerging research, extend my understanding of the discipline, and build connections within the welcoming Australian sociology community. Conferences are such an important step in postgraduate careers, fostering collegiality and collaboration at an often isolated career stage. But it’s not always easy for postgrad researchers to find the finances to attend. I’m deeply grateful to TASA for their generous support for postgraduate students through TASA's Conference Bursary, which made my own trip to Perth possible. After a few days relaxing and exploring Whadjuk Noongar Country after the conference, I’m now refreshed and recharged, ready to take on the final months of my PhD. Hope to see you all at TASA 2025!