Department of Sociology, Criminology & Gender Studies

Sociology, Criminology & Gender Studies are fields that help us think and question critically and empathetically about society, what changes, what remains the same and whether it is fair. 

socioloy-university-of-adelaide

Sociology scrutinizes everyday life, how society is organised and the social problems that arise. Criminology analyses crime and deviance. Gender Studies explores the way society is organised around gender.

  • Our teaching

    We teach students how to be critical thinkers and questioners. Our programs have a rigorous social science methods focus that provide the skills required to examine social issues through quantitative and qualitative research methods.

    Sociology covers a wide range of social issues, exploring the assumptions that lie behind key questions. Criminology focuses on understanding why people commit crimes and the social responses to it, including attempts at control. Gender Studies examines femininities, masculinities, and the ways in which gender intersects with other dimensions of power, privilege, and inequality, such as sexuality, race, ethnicity, and social class.

    STUDY sociology  Study Gender studies 

    Study criminology

  • Our people

    Name 

    Role
    Dr Nathan Manning

    Head of Department
    Senior Lecturer
    Undergraduate Discipline Advisor, Sociology
    Dr Pam Papadelos Senior Lecturer
    Undergraduate Discipline Advisor, Gender Studies
    Associate Professor Russell Brewer Undergraduate Program Coordinator, Bachelor of Criminology
    Honours Convenor, Criminology
    Dr Dee Michell Senior Lecturer
    Dr Ruthie O'Reilly Scholarly Teaching Fellow
    Undergraduate Discipline Advisor, Criminology
    Dr Djordje (George) Stefanovic Senior Lecturer
    Honours Convenor, Sociology
    Undergraduate Program Coordinator, Bachelor of Sociology
    Dr Anna Szorenyi Lecturer
    Professor Megan Warin Professor
    Honours Convenor, Gender Studies
    Director, Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender
    Dr Tanya Zivkovic ARC Future Fellow
    Dr Katie Logos Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Dr Julia Anaf Research Fellow, Stretton Health Equity
    Professor Fran Baum AO Director, Stretton Health Equity
    Dr Matt Fisher Senior Research Fellow, Stretton Health Equity
    Dr Joanne Flavel Research Fellow, Stretton Health Equity
    Dr Toby Freeman Senior Research Fellow and Director of Research, Stretton Health Equity
    Ms Sue Gibbons Research Support Officer, Stretton Health Equity
    Dr Connie Musolino Research Fellow, Stretton Health Equity
    Dr Miriam Vandenberg Research Fellow, Stretton Health Equity
    Dr Helen van Eyk Senior Research Fellow, Stretton Health Equity

  • Our research

    The Department of Sociology, Criminology are involved in a range of high impact research.

    Staff in the Department of Sociology, Criminology are involved in a range of research projects including:

    • the cultural and institutional processes that shape everyday food and activity practices
    • experience of foster care in Australia from the perspective of those involved, including the children
    • obesity and other eating disorders
    • debates about refugees and trafficking
    • migration and Australian identity
    • political sociology including young people’s relationship with politics and manifestations of ethnic conflict
    • cybercrime, youth delinquency, crime prevention and policing
    • death, dying and end-of-life decision-making
    • public policy for health equity, through Stretton Health Equity

Sociology

Sociology is the study of human activity in societies - questioning the social world and how it fits together. Use your voice to empower society.

Gender

Societies are directly influenced by gender whether we can see it or not. Explore society and the ways in which gender is organised around it.

Criminology

Criminology is the study of crime and deviance – seeking to understand the causes of crime, the extent and consequences of crime, as well as methods of crime prevention.

Green, M. J., Watkeys, O. J., Kariuki, M., Hindmarsh, G., Whitten, T., Dean, K., . . . Carr, V. J. (2022). Forecasting childhood adversities from conditions of birth. Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology.

Ward, P., Foley, K., Meyer, S., Wilson, C., Warin, M., Millar, E., . . . Lunnay, B. (2022). The place of alcohol in the ‘wellness toolkits’ of midlife women in different social classes: a qualitative study in South Australia. Sociology of Health and Illness: a journal of medical sociology.

Warin, M. (2022). Flexible Kinship. Medical Anthropology Quarterly: international journal for the cultural and social analysis of health.

Warin, M. J. (2022). Kristeva, anorexia and hunger’s abject desires. In N. Bubandt, & T. Schwarz Wentzer (Eds.), Philosophy on Fieldwork: Case Studies in Anthropological Analysis. Routledge.

Whitten, T., Cale, J., Nathan, S., Bista, S., Ferry, M., Williams, M., . . . Hayen, A. (2022). Hospitalisation following therapeutic community drug and alcohol treatment for young people with and without a history of criminal conviction. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 231, 109280.

Allen, Margaret. (2021) '“Though an Englishman, he was a Nationalist”: Border-Crossing and Friendship in late colonial India,' Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History,22(3).

Allen, Margaret. (2021) 'Circling around Pandita Ramabai and "The Little Wives of India,"' in E.Boris, S. Dawson and B.Molony (eds) Engendering Transnational Transgression: From the Intimate to the Global (63-83. Routledge.

Allen, Margaret. (2021) “‘I am a British subject’: Indians in Australia claim rights, 1880-1940” in Jane Carey and Frances Steele (eds.) Colonial Formations. Routledge.

Allen, Margaret. (2021) “Rosemary Wighton 1925-1994”, Australian Dictionary of Biography 19 (ANU Press).

Allison, S., Wade, T., Warin, M., Long, R., Bastiampillai, T., & Looi, J. C. L. (2021). Tertiary eating disorder services: is it time to integrate specialty care across the life span?. Australasian Psychiatry, 29(5), 516-518.

Allison, S., Wade, T., Warin, M., Long, R., Bastiampillai, T., & Looi, J. C. L. (2021). Response to Treasure and Schmidt: joined-up care for youth-onset eating disorders. Australasian Psychiatry, 103985622110435.

Allison, S., Warin, M., Bastiampillai, T., & Looi, J. C. L. (2021). Sociocultural influences on interventions for anorexia nervosa. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(5), 362-363.

Allison, S., Warin, M., Bastiampillai, T., Looi, J., & Strand, M. (2021). Recovery from anorexia nervosa: the influence of women’s sociocultural milieux. Australasian Psychiatry, 29(5), 513-515.

Athanassiou, U., Whitten, T., Tzoumakis, S., Hindmarsh, G., Laurens, K. R., Harris, F., . . . Dean, K. (2021). Examining the overlap of young people's early contact with the police as a person of interest and victim or witness. Journal of Criminology, 54(4), 501-520.

Brewer, R., Westlake, B., Hart, T., & Arauza, O. (2021). The Ethics of Web Crawling and Web Scraping in Criminological Research: Navigating Issues of Consent, Privacy and Other Potential Harms Associated with Automated Data Collection. In A. Lavorgna, & T. Holt (Eds.), Researching Cybercrimes. Palgrave.

Bright, D., Brewer, R., & Morselli, C. (2021). Using social network analysis to study crime: Navigating the challenges of criminal justice records. Social Networks, 66, 50-64.

Dean, K., Whitten, T., Tzoumakis, S., Laurens, K. R., Harris, F., Carr, V. J., & Green, M. J. (2021). Incidence of early police contact among children with emerging mental health problems in Australia. JAMA Network Open, 4(6), 1-13.

Foley, K., Warin, M., Meyer, S., Miller, E., & Ward, P. (2021). Alcohol and flourishing for Australian women in midlife: a qualitative study of negotiating (un)happiness. Sociology, 55(4), 1-17.

Green, M. J., Piotroswka, P. J., Tzoumakis, S., Whitten, T., Laurens, K. R., Butler, M., . . . Carr, V. J. (2021). Profiles of resilience from early to middle childhood among children known to Child Protection services. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 1-13.

Green, M. J., Watkeys, O. J., Kariuki, M., Hindmarsh, G., Whitten, T., Dean, K., ... & Carr, V. J. (2021). Forecasting childhood adversities from conditions of birth. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.

Green, M. J., Watkeys, O. J., Whitten, T., Thomas, C., Kariuki, M., Dean, K., . . . Carr, V. J. (2021). Increased incidence of childhood mental disorders following exposure to early life infection. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 97, 376-382.

Hockin-Boyers, H., & Warin, M. (2021). Women, exercise and eating disorder recovery: The normal and the pathological. Qualitative Health Research, 31(6), 1029-1042.

Holt, K. M., Holt, T. J., Cale, J., Brewer, R., & Goldsmith, A. (2021). Assessing the role of self-control and technology access on adolescent sexting and sext dissemination. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106952-1-106952-8.

Holt, T. J., Cale, J., Brewer, R., & Goldsmith, A. (2021). Assessing the role of opportunity and low self-control in juvenile hacking. Crime and Delinquency, 67(5), 662-688.

Laurens, K. R., Dean, K., Whitten, T., Tzoumakis, S., Harris, F., Waddy, N., . . . Green, M. J. (2021). Early childhood predictors of elementary school suspension: An Australian record linkage study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 77, 11 pages.

Logos, K., Brewer, N., & Young, R. L. (2021). Countering biased judgments of individuals who display autism-characteristic behavior in forensic settings. Human Communication Research, 47(3), 215-247.

Lunnay, B., Foley, K., Meyer, S. B., Warin, M., Wilson, C., Olver, I., . . . Ward, P. R. (2021). Alcohol consumption and perceptions of health risks during COVID-19: a qualitative study of middle-aged women in South Australia. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 1-11.

Malvaso, C. G., Cale, J., Whitten, T., Day, A., Singh, S., Hackett, L., . . . Ross, S. (2021). Associations between adverse childhood experiences and trauma among young people who offend: a systematic literature review. Trauma, Violence and Abuse: a Review Journal, 1-10.

Michell, D. (2021). Blood doesn't define evotypical families: Eleanor Spence's stories of informal and formal foster care in Australia. Bookbird: a journal of international children's literature, 59(2), 27-39.

Morgan-Jones, E., Stefanovic, D., & Loizides, N. (2021). Citizen endorsement of contested peace settlements: public opinion in post-Dayton Bosnia. Democratization, 28(2), 432-452.

Nguyen, N., Zivkovic, T., De Haas, R., & Faulkner, D. (2021). Problematizing "planning ahead": a cross-cultural analysis of Vietnamese health and community workers' perspectives on Advance Care Directives. Qualitative Health Research, 31(12), 2304-2316.

Papadelos, P. (2021). “Greeks are different to Australians”: understanding identity formation among third-generation Australians of Greek heritage. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(11), 1975-1994.

Papadelos, P., Beasley, C., & Treagus, M. (2021). Social change and masculinities: exploring favourable spaces?. Journal of Sociology, 144078332110482.

Salter, M., & Whitten, T. (2021). A Comparative Content Analysis of Pre-Internet and Contemporary Child Sexual Abuse Material. Deviant Behavior, 15 pages.

Souza, M., Borgstrom, E., & Zivkovic, T. (2021). Rethinking end of life care: Attending to care, language and emotions. Social Science and Medicine, 291, 114612.

Warin, M. (2021). No Appetite for Change: Culture, Liberalism and other Acts of Depoliticization in the Australian Obesity Debate. Sociological Research Online, 17 pages.

Warin, M. J., & Moore, V. (2021). Epistemic conflicts and Achilles' heels: constraints of a university and public sector partnership to research obesity in Australia. Critical Public Health, 31(5), 617-628.

Warin, M., Keaney, J., Kowal, E., & Byrne, H. (2021). Circuits of time: enacting postgenomics in Indigenous Australia. Body and Society.

Whitten, T., Dean, K., Li, R., Laurens, K. R., Harris, F., Carr, V. J., & Green, M. J. (2021). Earlier contact with child protection services among children of parents with criminal convictions and mental disorders. Child Maltreatment, 26(1), 63-73.

Zivkovic, T. M. (2021). About face: Relationalities of ageing and dying in Chinese migrant families. Social Science & Medicine, 291, 112827-1-112827-8.

Zivkovic, T. M. (2021). Lifelines and end-of-life decision-making: an anthropological analysis of advance care directives in cross-cultural contexts. Ethnos, 86(4), 1-19.

Zizzo, G., Warin, M., Zivkovic, T., & Maher, J. (2021). Productive exposures: Vulnerability as a parallel practice of care in ethnographic and community spaces. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 32(2), 150-165.

Brewer, R., Fox, S., & Miller, C. (2020). Applying the techniques of neutralization to the study of cybercrime. In T. Holt, & A. Bossler (Eds.) The Palgrave handbook of international cybercrime and cyberdeviance (pp. 547-565). Palgrave.

Bright, D., & Brewer, R. (2020). Innovations in research on illicit networks. Global Crime, 21(1), 1-2.

Holmes, M., Manning, N., & Wettergren, A. (2020). Political economies of emotion. Emotions and Society, 2(1), 3-11.

Loizides, N., & Stefanovic, D. (2020). Ethnic cleansing: Reversing the effects. In C. Ireland, M. Lewis, A. Lopez, & J. Ireland (Eds.) The Handbook of Collective Violence: Current Developments and Understanding (pp. 58-68). Routledge.

Manning, N. P., & Akhtar, P. (2020). 'No, we vote for whoever we want to': young British Muslims making new claims on citizenship amidst ongoing forms of marginalisation. Journal of Youth Studies, 24(7), 16 pages.

McGee, T. R., Whitten, T., Williams, C., Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2020). Classification of patterns of offending in developmental and life-course criminology, with special reference to persistence. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 59, 1-9.

Michell, D. (2020). Recovering from Doing Research as a Survivor-Researcher.. Qualitative Report, 25(5), 1377-1392.

Musolino, C., Warin, M., & Gilchrist, P. (2020). Embodiment as a paradigm for understanding and treating SE-AN: Locating the self in culture. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 534-1-534-11.

Nutrire CoLab., Burnett, D., Carney, M. A., Carruth, L., Chard, S., Dickinson, M., . . . Yates-Doerr, E. (2020). Anthropologists Respond to The Lancet EAT Commission. Bionatura, 5(1), 1023-1-1023-2.

Piotrowska, P. J., Whitten, T., Tzoumakis, S., Laurens, K. R., Katz, I., Carr, V. J., . . . Green, M. J. (2020). Transitions between socio-emotional and cognitive vulnerability profiles from early to middle childhood: a population study using multi-agency administrative records. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: official journal of the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29(12), 1659-1670.

Suzuki, A., Stefanovic, D., & Loizides, N. (2020). Displacement and the expectation of political violence: Evidence from Bosnia. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 38(5), 19 pages.

Tzoumakis, S., Whitten, T., Piotrowska, P. J., Dean, K., Laurens, K. R., Harris, F., . . . Green, M. J. (2020). Gender and the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. Journal of Criminal Justice, 67, 8 pages.

Warin, M. J. (2020). Beyond carrot sticks and sermons: The practice of education in obesity interventions. In D. Leahy, K. Fitzpatrick, & J. Wright (Eds.) Social Theory and Health Education: Forging New Insights in Research (pp. 230-240). Routledge.

Warin, M. J. (2020). The "gentle and invisible" violence of obesity prevention. American Anthropologist, 122(3), 663-664.

Warin, M. J., & Valdez, N. (2020). #My(white)BodyMyChoice. Thesis Eleven (Online Special: Living and Thinking Crisis).

Warin, M. J., Kowal, E., & Meloni, M. (2020). Indigenous knowledge in a postgenomic landscape: The politics of epigenetic hope and reparation in Australia. Science, Technology, and Human Values, 45(1), 87-111.

Wettergren, Å., Holmes, M., & Manning, N. (2020). Emotions in the pandemic: Crises and politics of change. Emotions and Society, 2(2), 115-119.

Whitten, T., Green, M. J., Tzoumakis, S., Laurens, K. R., Harris, F., Carr, V. J., & Dean, K. (2020). Children’s contact with police as a victim, person of interest and witness in New South Wales, Australia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 53(3), 1-24.

Allen, Margaret. (2019) Controlling Transnational Asian Mobilities: A Comparison of Documentary Systems in Australia and South Africa (1890s to 1930s)' with Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie in Robert Heynen and Emily van der Meulen, eds.Surveillance Societies: Transnational Histories (133-163). University of Toronto Press.

Brewer, R., Vel-Palumbo, M. D., Hutchings, A., Holt, T., Goldsmith, A., & Maimon, D. (2019). Cybercrime prevention: theory and applications. Palgrave Macmillan.

Farrell, L., Moore, V., Warin, M., & Street, J. (2019). Why do the public support or oppose obesity prevention regulations? Results from a South Australian population survey. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 30(1), 47-59.

Holmes, M., Manning, N. P., & Wettergren, A. (2019). Into the 21st Century. Emotions and Society, 1(1), 3-8.

Holt, T. J., Brewer, R., & Goldsmith, A. (2019). Digital drift and the “sense of injustice”: counter-productive policing of youth cybercrime. Deviant Behavior, 40(9), 1144-1156.

Jurczyszyn, R., & Michell, D. (2019). We Can Do It and So Can Our Future Care Leavers! Care Leavers at University. In P. McNamara, C. Montserrat, & S. Wise (Eds.), Education in Out of Home Care (pp. 255-266). Springer Nature.

Michell, D. E. (2019). Oral Histories and Enlightened Witnessing. In K. Moruzi, N. Musgrove, & C. Pasco Leahy (Eds.), Children’s Voices from the Past New Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 211-231). Palgrave Macmillan.

Papadelos, P. (2019). Living between two cultures: reflecting on Greek orthodox mourning practices. Social Identities, 25(2), 254-268.

Psaltis, C., Loizides, N., LaPierre, A., & Stefanovic, D. (2019). Transitional justice and acceptance of cohabitation in Cyprus. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(11), 1850-1869.

Stefanovic, D., & Evans, G. (2019). Multiple Winning Formulae? Far Right Voters and Parties in Eastern Europe. Europe-Asia Studies, 71(9), 1443-1473.

Warin, M. (2019). The politics of disease: Obesity in historical perspective. Australian journal of general practice, 48(10), 728-731.

Warin, M. J., Jay, B., & Zivkovic, T. (2019). “Ready-made” assumptions: Situating convenience as care in the Australian obesity debate. Food and Foodways, 27(4), 273-295.

Warin, M., & Zivkovic, T. (2019). Fatness, obesity and disadvantage in the Australian suburbs: unpalatable politics. Palgrave Macmillan.

Whitten, T., Burton, M., Tzoumakis, S., & Dean, K. (2019). Parental Offending and Child Physical Health, Mental Health, and Drug Use Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(5), 1155-1168.

Whitten, T., Green, M., Laurens, K., Tzoumakis, S., Harris, F., Carr, V., & Dean, K. (2019). Parental offending and children’s emergency department presentations in New South Wales, Australia. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 27(9), 832-838.

Whitten, T., Laurens, K., Tzoumakis, S., Kaggodaarachchi, S., Green, M., Harris, F., . . . Dean, K. (2019). The influence of parental offending on the continuity and discontinuity of children’s internalizing and externalizing difficulties from early to middle childhood. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 54(8), 965-975.

Whitten, T., McGee, T. R., Homel, R., Farrington, D. P., & Ttofi, M. (2019). Comparing the criminal careers and childhood risk factors of persistent, chronic, and persistent–chronic offenders. Australian & New Zealand journal of criminology, 52(2), 151-173.

Zivkovic, T. M. (2019). Preparing for (life after) death: Advance care directives and cyclic temporalities. Australian Journal of Anthropology, 30(3), 264-276.

  • Our HDRs

    Current Students 

    Name Topic
    Caitlan Elizabeth Sian Miller Understanding the Role of Internet Addiction in Adolescent Cyber-Sexual Delinquency
    Cambrey Oliver Payne Embodying Autism: an exploration of the ways autistic adults describe their bodily experiences
    Henrietta Rose Byrne Exploring epigenetics in response to intergenerational trauma in Indigenous Australia: race, gender, and the production of scientific knowledge
    Josephine Lauren Virgara Developing a measure of coercive control to evaluate the efficacy of a family and domestic violence program: An Australian perspective
    Kahtia Evelyn Lontis Representation, Identity and Ideology in Netflix and the Instagram Aesthetic
    Morgan Lee Ruth Sayer Cyberbullying prevention: Efficacy of a school-based program implemented in Australia and the United Kingdom
    Naida Robert Writing a war from within a war: Explorations in traumatic Bosnian war memory
    Natalie Jane Thomas Disability in the workplace
    Pallavi Laxmikanth Curing Diabetes Through Motherly Care: the Gendered Politics of Homemade Food in Hyderabad
    Rachael Anne De Hass 'Do it Yourself'? the Complexities of Advance Care Planning in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities
    Rosemary Mavis Wanganeen There's Nothing 'Wrong' With Us, We're Only Grieving: A 'love' letter to my Aboriginal Community!
    Sarah Marie Fox Encountering Online Hate: Exploring the interactional factors associated with youth participation
    Tarmia Klass Disruptive Bodies in Discursive Spaces: Radical Fat Acceptance and Fat Bodies on Instagram
    Carina Kraft Understanding Political Socialisation of Disadvantaged Young People and how Digital Participation may Offer Opportunities for Engagement

     

    Recently Completed

    Name Topic Degree
    Jennefer Lyn Lagria Bagaporo Our ‘Ideal’: Reconfigurations of Masculinities among Filipino Men Who Experienced Violent Conflict and Internal Displacement in Southern Philippines PhD
    Julie-Anne Toohey Punishing Disability: The Lived Experience of Incarcerated Women with Cognitive Disabilities in Australian Prisons PhD
    Karen Jane Williams Janus-Faced Mothering and a Cruel Story of Blame: The Representations and Lived Effects of Mothering an Autistic Child PhD
    Laurence Cobbaert Australian Alcohol Advertising, Gender Stereotypes, and Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assault MPhil
    Nadine Levy Utopian Encounters: Healing, Transformation and Paradox Amongst Women in Alternative Community PhD
    Sharyn Leanne Goudie ‘I feel like my luck's going to run out soon’: Youth Citizenship and Housing Responses to Homelessness in South Australia PhD
    Zurina Simm Philanthropy and Social Justice: Examining the Social Impact of Grant-Making by Philanthropic Institutions in Australia PhD

     

     

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