The intention of the TASA Executive Committee in awarding this prize is to recognise members’ contributions to the discipline of sociology through publication of a monograph by a recognised publisher. The general criteria for eligibility are as follows:

• The Prize is awarded biennially and commenced in 2010.
• Entries must be published in the two years preceding the year of the prize, as evidenced by the publication date shown in the front matter (please double check the date in the front matter as sometimes this date is different to the date your book was released).
• Nominees must be current financial members of TASA and be resident in Australia, or have been resident in Australia during some of the work for the book.
• The nominated book must: be a major work of scholarship; have an ISBN; be entirely written by a single author, or by joint authors who share responsibility for the whole book (i.e. individual chapters are not attributed to different authors); consist mainly of previously unpublished material, and make some substantial contribution to a defined area of knowledge; be published by a recognised commercial press or publisher. Textbooks (designated by self-proclaimed student orientation and/or significant pedagogic features), edited collections, PhD theses and self-published works are excluded. (However books based on PhD research are acceptable.)
• Nominees must not have had an eligible book published previously in Australia or overseas. In the case of books with joint authors, both authors must meet this specification.
• Previous entrants are excluded.
• The nominated book should be clearly from the discipline of Sociology or combine Sociology with another discipline.
• Entries may also be submitted for the Stephen Crook Memorial Prize
• The decision of the judging panel will be final and no further communication will be entered into.

Nominations are sought by general invitation to Australian publishers and a general call to authors via TASAweb, the TASA weekly eNewsletter, Twitter, Facebook and Nexus:

• Nominations must be made on the online nomination form. The nomination procedure requires a $50 processing fee, which can be paid at the end of the online nomination form process. 
• The completed nomination form, fee, 6 copies of the nominated print book and a link to the nominated eBook, must be submitted to the TASA Office by no later than March 3rd, 2024.  Please note: photocopied works will not be accepted.
• It is a condition of entry that publicity for the winning book refers to the prize as The Raewyn Connell Prize. The prize can be described as being awarded biennially for the ‘best authored first monograph in Australian Sociology’ 

• The prize will be awarded to the book judged by the panel to be the best published during the nominated years. It is awarded every two years.
• Textbooks, PhD theses, edited collections and self-published works are excluded from consideration.
• The panel will comprise 6 members. Authors or co-authors of books are excluded from panel membership.
• The selection will take place in two stages. Nominated books will be circulated to the panel. Panel members will be asked to read each nominated book, by a set date, and provide a list of three eligible books in order of merit. Books will be awarded 3 points for each 1st preference, 2 points for each 2nd preference, and 1 point for each 3rd preference.
• The 3 books with the highest total points will be designated as a shortlist. In the event of ties, the shortlist may be longer than 3 books.
• All members of the panel will be invited to rank the shortlist in order of merit, by a set date.
• The recipient of the prize will be determined by calculating the number of points awarded to each short-listed book, where 3 points are given for each 1st preference, 2 for each 2nd preference, and 1 point for each third preference. The book scoring the most points wins the prize. In the event of a tie on this calculation, the prize will be awarded to the tied book receiving the most 1st preferences.
• The prize will only be awarded if at least 50% of the panel members have participated in each of the two rounds of nominations.
• The prize will be announced and presented to the recipient in the relevant year of the annual TASA conference.
• The judging panel reserves the right not to award the prize.

Pictured: Xiaoying Qi (left) presenting the RCP to Leah Williams Veazy (right)
2022: Leah Williams Veazy - Migrant Mothers in the Digital Age 

2020: Steven Threadgold - Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles

The committee decided to award a Special Commendation for the 2020 round. The special commendation is a way for TASA to recognise the excellence of another book and recommend it to Sociologists. The author awarded a Special Commendation in 2020 was:

Kristine Aquino (2018) Racism and Resistance among the Filipino Diaspora: Everyday Anti-racism in Australia. Routledge. 


2018: Natalie Jovanovski – Digesting Femininities. Palgrave Macmillan.

2016: Joel Windle – Making Sense of School Choice: Politics, Policies, and Practice Under Conditions of Cultural Diversity. Palgrave Macmillan. 2015.

Special Commendations: 2016 was an exceptional year for the Raewyn Connel Prize and there were 3 books shortlisted that in a regular year would have taken out the prize. One winner was chosen and the committee decided to award two Special Commendations.  The special commendation is a way for TASA to recognise the excellence of the other two books and recommend them to Sociologists. The two authors awarded a Special Commendation in 2016 were:

Xiaoying Qi – Globalized Knowledge Flows and Chinese Social Theory. London and New York: Routledge

Lucy Nicholas – Queer Post Gender Ethics: The Shape of Selves to Come. Palgrave Macmillan.

2014: Shanthi Robertson – Transnational Student-Migrants and the State: The Education-Migration Nexus. Palgrave Macmillan. 2013.

2012: Catherine Robinson – Beside One’s Self: Homelessness Felt and Lived: Syracuse University Press. 2011.

2012: Katie Wright received a special commendation for The Rise of the Therapeutic Society; Psychological Knowledge & the Contradictions of Cultural Change, New Academia, 2011.

2010: Peter Robinson – The Changing World of Gay Men. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2008.

Peter on his book: To collect primary data for The Changing World of Gay Men, I travelled the Hume, Newell, and Western highways and crossed Bass Strait between 2002 and 2005. I did so in order to interview a non-representative sample of 80 gay men from the capital cities of the south east and country towns and districts of New South Wales. The men I interviewed were aged between 20 and 79 and originally signed up to discuss what ageing meant to gay men. Because they revealed so much in their interviews about their life course and the struggle to assert themselves in a world dominated by heterosexual values, I changed my research project to an examination of the lives of three generations of gay men and the varying degree to which sexuality shaped their lives. 

To read Peter's full article see Nexus 23_1 2011

2022

Chair - Adam Possamai
Steven Threadgold (2020 winner)
Kay Cook (Executive Representative)
Xiaoying Qi
Sam Han
Theresa Petray

2020

Chair – Lucy Nicholas
Alphia Possamai-Inesedy (Exec rep)
Greg Noble
Helen Berents
Emma Kirby
Natalie Jovanovski (2018 winner)

2018

Chair – Alex Broom
TASA Executive member – Ashleigh Watson
Lynda Cheshire
Brendan Churchill
Katherine Kenny

There was a conflict of interest with the 6th panel member so the Award was judged with 5 members in 2018

2016

Jo Lindsay (Chair)

Shanthi Robertson (2014 recipient)

Raewyn Connell

Brady Robards (Exec rep)

Karen Farquharson

Deb Warr

2014

Suzanne Franzway (Chair)

Raeywn Connell

Malcolm Alexander

Karen Soldatic

Catherine Robertson

Donella Caspersz

Zane Ma Rhea

2012

Dr Kristin Natalier (Chair)

Professor Raewyn Connell

Associate Professor Julie Matthews (TASA Executive Representative)

Dr Peter Robinson (2010 RCP winner)

Dr Susan Oakley

Professor Tim Marjoribanks

2010

Associate Professor Helen Meekosha (Chair)

Professor Raeywn Connell

Dr Jo Lindsay (General Executive Member)

Dr Andrew Metcalf

Associate Professor Suzanne Franzway

Dr Zuleyka Zevallos