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Sociology and Criminology
Society shapes our world. Understand how.
Our world-leading academics examine many aspects of how society and individual behaviour influence each other. We research and teach on elements of society that shape our world.
Interpreting the thorny questions arising in modern times – whether inequality, environmental crises, or social identity – requires a strong understanding of the path that society has taken to bring us where we are today. Our study of sociology, socio-legal studies, criminology, and social justice gives students powerful tools for grasping clearly the world’s countless international and domestic issues. Our commitment to research and teaching helps explain why our sociology program placed 26th internationally in the 2021 QS World University rankings.
Our study offerings
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.
Undergraduate
*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, and as a second major for students from other faculties.
Postgraduate
- Master of Social Justice (Human Rights)
- Master of Social Justice (Peace and Conflict Studies)
- Master of Social Justice (Development Studies)
*Learn more about postgraduate coursework opportunities available to Sociology students.
Find answers to frequently asked questions.
Research
Criminology is a rich discipline that draws on sociology, psychology, science, law, philosophy, culture studies and history to draw attention to the social dimensions of crime and deviancy and assess the effectiveness and implications of crime control measures. You will gain an advanced understanding of crime, criminal justice practices, deviance, causes of crime, victimisation, social control, juvenile justice, indigenous justice, crime prevention, prison and other alternatives to punishment, as well as medico-legal forensic practices.
Undergraduate
*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, and as a second major for students from other faculties.
Postgraduate
- Master of Social Justice (Human Rights)
- Master of Social Justice (Peace and Conflict Studies)
- Master of Social Justice (Development Studies)
Learn more about postgraduate coursework opportunities available to Criminology students.
Find answers to frequently asked questions.
Research
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.
Undergraduate
*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, and as a second major for students from other faculties.
Postgraduate
- Master of Social Justice (Human Rights)
- Master of Social Justice (Peace and Conflict Studies)
- Master of Social Justice (Development Studies)
*Learn more about postgraduate coursework opportunities available to Socio-Legal Studies students.
Find answers to frequently asked questions.
Research
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?
Undergraduate
*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, and as a second major for students from other faculties.
Postgraduate
- Master of Social Justice (Human Rights)
- Master of Social Justice (Peace and Conflict Studies)
- Master of Social Justice (Development Studies)
*Learn more about postgraduate coursework opportunities available to Social Policy students.
Find answers to frequently asked questions.
Research
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.
Postgraduate
- Master of Social Justice (Human Rights)
- Graduate Diploma in Social Justice (Human Rights)
- Graduate Certificate in Social Justice
*Learn more about postgraduate coursework opportunities available to Human Rights students.
Find answers to frequently asked questions.
Research
Peace and Conflict Studies focuses on the interconnections between peace, conflict, justice and human rights. From conflict transformation after mass violence to the role of the media in peace building, Peace and Conflict Studies explores the intellectual and practical challenges of attaining peace with justice.
Postgraduate
- Master of Social Justice (Peace and Conflict Studies)
- Graduate Diploma in Social Justice (Peace and Conflict Studies)
- Graduate Certificate in Social Justice
*Learn more about postgraduate coursework opportunities available to Peace and Conflict Studies students.
Find answers to frequently asked questions.
Research
Confront the challenges of achieving just and sustainable development outcomes that will improve people’s social, economic and cultural lives.
Postgraduate
- Master of Social Justice (Development Studies)
- Graduate Diploma in Social Justice (Development Studies)
- Graduate Certificate in Social Justice
*Learn more about postgraduate coursework opportunities available to Development Studies students.
Find answers to frequently asked questions.
Research
Our academic staff are leaders in these world-renowned initiatives:
- The Sydney Environment Institute is a national and world leader in multidisciplinary environmental research, extending and amplifying the scope of the engagement on environmental issues; and bringing together expertise from across disciplines to address key environmental problems in favour of the public good.
- The LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building has built a framework for the study of knowledge and education to analyse a growing range of practices across education, law, politics, art, and public understandings of science.
- The Sydney Peace Foundation awards the annual Sydney Peace Prize – Australia's only international prize for peace. Previous recipients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Klein, Professor Noam Chomsky, the founders of Black Lives Matter, Patrick Dodson and Joseph Stiglitz.
- The Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies harnesses social science and humanities expertise to understand and transform how health and social life intersect on our changing planet.
Our research
From academic work to commissioned reports, from popular press to podcasts, our Discipline’s research delves deeply into the world’s most pressing theoretical and practical issues. Research topics have included disarmament, human rights and corporate responsibility, Aboriginal night patrols, non-violent policing, the effects of racism on Lebanese youth in Western Sydney, and justice and reconciliation in Rwanda, Cambodia and East Timor.
Currently, our research is grouped around the following thematic clusters:
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:
- How to decolonise the ways in which historical and contemporary death and trauma of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are constructed by the state?
- How to investigate methodologies recover and recognise victims– e.g the exhumation of the disappeared, commissions of inquiry into institutional abuse?
- How has transitional justice approached death and trauma as the legacy of violence in contemporary post-authoritarian societies and in historical settler societies?
- How do issues of class, sexuality, gender, disability and race shape understandings of trauma, reparations and justice?
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
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
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
Our people
- Professor Lisa Adkins
- Associate Professor Salvatore Babones
- Associate Professor Susan Banki
- Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves
- Professor Alexander Broom
- Associate Professor Craig Browne
- Dr Henrietta Byrne
- Dr Beatriz Carrillo Garcia
- Professor Danielle Celermajer
- Associate Professor Nadine Ehlers
- Dr Amanda Elliot
- Professor Sujatha Fernandes
- Dr Allen George
- Dr Fiona Gill
- Dr Gyu-Jin Hwang
- Dr Mandy Henningham
- Dr Katherine Kenny
- Dr Wendy Lambourne
- Dr Sara Leon Spesny
- Associate Professor Jake Lynch
- Dr Benjamin Manning
- Professor Gregory Martin
- Professor Karl Maton
- Dr Eyal Mayroz
- Dr Estrella Pearce
- Dr Roberta Pala
- Dr Michelle Peterie
- Associate Professor Rebecca Scott Bray
- Dr Ihab Shalbak
- Dr Jianni Tien
- Professor Sonja Van Wichelen
- Dr Blanche Verlie
- Associate Professor Dinesh Wadiwel
- Dr Leah Williams Veazey
- Adjunct Associate Professor Jean (Jonathan) Bogais
- Emeritus Professor Bettina Cass
- Honorary Associate Dr Maria Chisari
- Honorary Associate Professor Fran Collyer
- Honorary Professor Prof Assa Doron
- Adjunct Associate Lecturer Mr Osman Faruqi
- Emeritus Professor Michael Humphrey
- Honorary Associate Professor Christine Inglis
- Honorary Research Fellow Dr Benjamin Manning
- Honorary Research Fellow Dr Natalie Maystorovich
- Honorary Senior Lecturer Dr Karen O'Brien
- Honorary Associate Dr Erik Paul
- Honorary Senior Lecturer Dr Alexander Pemberton
- Honorary Professor Barbara Prainsack
- Honorary Associate Dr Vivianna Rodriguez Carreon
- Honorary Professor Marsha Rosengarten
- Honorary Associate Dr Marc Torka
- Emeritus Professor Robert Van Krieken
- Honorary Associate Dr Devorah Wainer
Honorary Professor Stephen Castles
The Discipline of Sociology and Criminology remembers with great respect and affection the life of Professor Stephen Castles who passed away in August 2022.
Stephen was a leading international scholar in the field of migration and published landmark works which will remain classics for generations. His work – clear, comprehensive, and always attentive to structural elements that informed migration and refugee flows – has laid the foundation for countless scholars that follow him. He spent the longest period of his career at the Centre for Multicultural Studies at the University of Wollongong, where he engaged in a great deal of policy work for the government. It is also where he met his wife, sociologist Ellie Vasta. Following that, he served as the Director of the Refugee Studies at the University of Oxford, which he led with great equanimity and force. His final position prior to retirement was the University of Sydney, where he led a young group of PhD scholars on a major ARC project that delved deeply into the force of social transformation and its relationship to migration. Stephen was dedicated to his students and treated them with great respect, and in turn, they adored him. Throughout his illustrious career he used his stellar reputation to promote the rights of refugees and migrants, serving on advisory boards and participating in policy working groups. He was greatly appreciated by his department colleagues as warm, humorous and intellectually engaged, always willing to contribute to the common good. Stephen’s enormous network of family, friends and academics will miss him greatly and always remember him.
Events
For a full listing of our upcoming events, please visit the School's events calendar.
In memoriam
Honorary Professor Stephen Castles
Donate to the The Stephen Castles Award in Migration Studies
Zaina Ahmed
Sociology student
“I was chosen by the department to participate in an informal exchange with the University of Tokyo, where I got to explore cultural differences in how cities are designed and built as well as how we think about urban spaces.”
View the undergraduate handbook