Nexus

The 2025 TASA conference was the first TASA event I have attended in person. I had no idea what to expect, but I definitely wasn’t disappointed!

I was very fortunate to receive the bursary, which enabled me to attend this conference without worrying about the financial burden, as a doctoral student who recently moved to Australia from Aotearoa New Zealand, and dragged my partner along with me! With this bursary, I could attend all four days in full, where I met a whole bunch of new people from all over Australia and strengthened some relationships that were already formed. A highlight of the conference for me was the queer drinks event. I could put faces to the names of people I had cited in my own research, and even some that I have been working alongside yet hadn’t met in person. The people were great, and so was the food!

I spent most of my time in the Sociology of Youth and the Gender and Sexualities streams, as both are so relevant to my research on the social media use of young queer Australians and its impact on their understanding of relationships and sexualities. Coming from a slightly different academic background – applied linguistics – I was nervous about presenting, at first, as I had never presented a paper at a sociology conference before. Also, it had been more than seven years since I had last presented a paper, and that was at a relatively small conference in Wellington. I presented a paper on the planning stages of my research in the Gender and Sexualities stream and really appreciated how welcoming and inclusive the space felt. The best part was the conversations that ensued after my presentation. I really appreciate all the feedback I received and the suggestions I was given to move forward with my research. 



For anyone who has yet to attend a TASA conference, I highly recommend it and can’t wait for TASA 2026!