Research
Sociology and Criminology
Sociology at UNE reflects the lively diversity of theoretical approaches, research methods, and substantive research areas that characterises sociology as a whole. Our units crisscross the entire discipline and together, in their similarities and in their differences, invite students to actively participate in the sociological project—the attempt to understand how society works.
All members of the discipline at UNE are active researchers and teach in their areas of expertise.
In 2003 the Discipline was host to The Australian Sociological Association, Conference, titled: New Times, New Worlds and New Ideas: Sociology Today and Tomorrow.
Jude Brown (MAppStat, Macquarie University) has a broad range of quantitative data analysis and data management skills developed through working in the fields of Medical Psychology, Social Policy and Sociology.
Experience in data analysis includes survival analysis and several regression techniques (Linear, Logistic, Poisson, Tobit), including random coefficients models, for administrative, survey, longitudinal and time use dairy data. Current research interests include the study of physical activity in four year olds (and the relationship to obesity), work and family balance, 'stress' and quality of life.
Peter Corrigan (Ph.D., University of Dublin) specializes in the study of consumption practices, media and cybersociety, power in discourse, qualitative methods, and the relationship between aesthetics and the social. He is the author of numerous articles in these areas; his book The Sociology of Consumption is currently being translated into a fourth foreign language.
Gail Hawkes (Ph.D., University of Manchester) joined the staff in 2001 from the UK. She is a world authority on the history of ideas about Western sexuality – her books on the topic being included in 40 university reading lists across the world. Her first book, A Sociology of Sex and Sexuality (1996) remains in reprinted versions 12 years later and has been translated into Korean. She has written and solely teaches two upper level units on The Sociology of Sexuality and Families and Family Relationships. She has published 2 monographs and co-authored one edited collection on adult sexuality as well as several book chapters and numerous articles. Since 2006 she has been engaged in an international collaboration with Professor R. Danielle Egan, (USA). Together they have pioneered a new area in comparative sociology – the construction of the sexual child in the Anglophone west, past and present. She has co-edited two international journal special issues on the topic and is currently preparing a third for production in 2011. Together with Professor Egan she has published two book chapters and eight full journal articles in three years. Her co-authored monograph Theorising the Sexual Child in Modernity (Palgrave Macmillan) is released in March 2010. She and Professor Egan are currently contracted to Polity (UK) to deliver another monograph, The Sexualisation Phenomenon in December 2011. Her interest in sexuality and age is reflected in her current research proposal, along with Victor Minichiello and Marian Pitts (Australian Research Centre for Sexuality and Health, La Trobe University) to examine sexual subjectivity in older Australian women.
Eric Livingston (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles) does studies of skill and reasoning in areas ranging from draughts and the tango to mathematics and laboratory chemistry. He teaches units in the practice of everyday life, ethnomethodology, and research methods.
John Scott (Ph.D., University of Newcastle)is a specialist in interpretive methods and socio-cultural analysis. His main research interests are deviance, crime and social control, sexuality and gender, and health and illness. Associate Professor Scott has published a number of books and articles in these areas and has acted as a consultant. His publications include Perspectives in Human Sexuality (co-edited with Gail Hawkes), Oxford University Press, Geneaological Analysis of Prostitution and Public Health: Differentiating the Bad from the Bad, Edwin Mellen Press, and Crime in Rural Australia (co-edited with Barclay et al.). He is currently working on an ARC Discovery Grant (with Kerry Carrington and Russell Hogg) investigating masculinity and violence in rural Australia and an ARC Linkage Grant (with Don Hine) examining wood-smoke pollution.
Jenny Wise (Ph.D., University of New South Wales) specialises in the study of the social impacts of forensic science on the criminal justice system. Her main research interests are the role of DNA profiling in changing the criminal justice system, policing and technology, sexual assault reforms, and civil rights issues. She published her first book in 2009, titled, The New Scientific Eyewitness: the role of DNA profiling in shaping criminal justice and is continuing her research in this field. She currently teaches units in criminology, youth delinquency and forensic identification.
Habib Zafarullah (PhD, University of Sydney) has research interests in democratic governance, public policy analysis (including social policy), international development issues, public management and bureaucracy. He mainly focuses his research on South and Southeast Asia and has published extensively on political, governance and development issues. His most recent books include International Development Governance (Taylor & Francis, 2006) and The Bureaucratic Ascendency in Bangladesh (South Asia, 2005). His forthcoming co-authored book will be New Development Management (Taylor & Francis, 2011). He was editor of Politics Administration & Change, an international multi-disciplinary journal, from 1980 to 2004.
These brief biographical sketches reflect not only the breadth of coverage, but the innovative, contemporary approaches to teaching and research that distinguish sociology at UNE. Sociology students are invited into an active, participatory exploration of social life in all its diversity; the units at UNE introduce them to a dynamic sociology that will continue to affect their perception and understanding of the social world well beyond their time at the university.
