Facts & figures
- Top 25 in the world for Sociology
- Top 30 in the world for Social Policy
- 2020 QS World University Rankings
Facts & figures
We teach how to pose and answer relevant questions to gain a better understanding of how the features of social life are made and shaped.
Placing 26th internationally in the 2021 QS World University rankings for Sociology, our department includes two world-leading centres, the Sydney Asia-Pacific Migration Centre and the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building. The LCT Centre has built a framework for the study of knowledge and education now being used to analyse a growing range of practices across education, law, politics, art, and public understandings of science.
Criminology is devoted to the study of crime and its causes, deviance, social control and the operation of the criminal justice system, examining topics such as policing, youth justice, prisons and punishment, surveillance, crime and media, Indigenous justice, forensics, and corporate and state crime.
*Available to all students studying the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Visual Arts, as well as all combined Bachelor of Advanced Studies degrees.
Human rights combines social, scientific and legal approaches and provides a holistic perspective on human rights and social change. The course addresses human rights violations at local, national, regional and global levels.
Social policy is concerned with a range of questions including: How will wealth and wellbeing be distributed in the 21st century? Do social policies challenge or reinforce inequality? How does Australia compare to other nations on measures of welfare?
*Available to all students studying the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Visual Arts, as well as all combined Bachelor of Advanced Studies degrees.
Socio-Legal Studies is the study of legal ideas, practices and institutions in their social, historical and political contexts. It explores the ways laws are made and enforced as well as the impact of legal practices on our everyday lives and the organisation of society. You will learn to understand how the law operates across different societies, and gain research and analytical skills that are highly desired by employers in private industry, non-profit organisations, and the government sector.
*Available to all students studying the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Visual Arts, as well as all combined Bachelor of Advanced Studies degrees.
Sociologists study social life, institutions and social change, explore how the modern world came into being and how it might develop in the future. Studying Sociology will enable you to recognise, research and analyse the dynamics of power and inequality in our everyday lives and the organisation of society.
*Available to all students studying the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Visual Arts, as well as all combined Bachelor of Advanced Studies degrees.
We work on a range of specific research projects, commissioned consultancies and publications. The department's research focus is grouped into the following thematic clusters:
People today face conflicting demands to “be themselves” in a cosmopolitan and hyper-public, mediatized world. Within instituted hierarchies and social networks, dialectics of control permeate struggles for authenticity and autonomy and attempts to form meaningful relationships with others. Our research explores these paradoxes of authenticity and community, their impact on the emotions and capacity for intimacy, and the broader implications for personal freedom, social imaginaries, and global modernity.
Key researchers
Craig Browne, Jennifer Wilkinson, Salvatore Babones, Karen O’Brien and Tim Soutphommasame.
Resources
- On Hate
Knowledge is a central feature of contemporary economies, societies and personal lives. Our scholars embrace cutting-edge approaches to knowledge, including southern theory, world society theory and Legitimation Code Theory, that represent a unique combination of insights within one department. Studies cover a distinctively broad range of areas, from school classrooms to disciplinary history, from global flows of knowledge to local interactions between individuals. Work in this theme has been recognised within and beyond the University with the award of a SOAR fellowship, the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building, and an ARC Discovery Grant focused on Knowledge-Making in Australian Society: Sociology and it's Social Impact.
Key researchers
Karl Maton, Fran Collyer, Salvatore Babones, Dr Ben Manning, Dr Leah Williams Veazey, Sharon Aris (HDR), Elena Lambrinos (HDR), Patrick Locke (HDR), Mauricio Quilpatay (HDR), Saul Richardson (HDR), Mathew Toll (HDR), Zhigang Yu (HDR), Rurong Le (HDR).
Resources
- Knowledge and Global Power: Making New Sciences in the South
Brings together key scholars who investigate death and trauma arising from physical and structural violence, focusing on questions such as:
Key researchers
Catriona Elder, Robert van Krieken, Michael Humphrey, Sonja van Wichelen, Rebecca Bray, Greg Martin, Fiona Gill, Allen George, Karen O’Brien, Danielle Celermajer and Estrella Pearce.
Resources
- Legitimating Life: Adoption in the Age of Globalization and Biotechnology
Drawing from emerging fields such as science and technology studies, animal studies, posthumanism, environmental humanities, new materialism and critical race studies, our researchers seeks to reconceptualise societies in ways that focus attention on the social, political and economic dynamics of life (human and non-human), networks, technologies and environment, and to questions of justice amongst them. This grouping involves scholars engaged in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences FutureFix BioHumanity and Multispecies Justice research themes. In addition, scholars involved in Posthuman Socialities convene the Biopolitics of Science Research Network and the Human Animal Research Network.
Key researchers
David Bray, Dinesh Wadiwel, Danielle Celermajer, Nadine Ehlers, Sonja van Wichelen
Resources
Examines the logics of asset-based capitalism and investigates the new forms of inequality and precarity accompanying its rise. It looks at everything from the high rentier economies of energy monopolies, urban infrastructure booms and intellectual property regimes, to the everyday rentierism of negatively geared investors and the work/rentier hybrids represented by Airbnb hosts and uber drivers. The theme involves scholars engaged in the FASS FutureFix Asset Ownership and New Forms of Inequality research theme and the Collaborative Research Support Initiative on Energy It's Institutions, Networks and Lived Experiences.
Key researchers
Melinda Cooper, Amanda Elliot, Michael Humphrey, Lisa Adkins, Monique Mackenzie (HDR), Greta Werner (HDR) and Carolyn Vaughn Brennan (HDR)
Resources
For a full listing of our upcoming events, please visit the School's events calendar.