SAANZ2025

Now open. Go here to register. 

Full fees

The 2025 Call for Abstracts has been extended to 10 September 2025 

The convenors of the SAANZ Annual Conference 2025: A Sociology of Beauty and Joy, are pleased to call for submissions for conference papers. Paper presentations will be 15 minutes each, with 5 minutes for questions. This call for abstracts closes on 10 September 2025. All abstracts will be reviewed and included at the discretion of the conference organising committee.

General Call for Abstracts

As always, the 2025 SAANZ Conference welcomes all sociologically grounded topics, but we look forward to a focus on the local, the Indigenous, the grassroots, the community-based, drawing on the conference theme. Should you have any questions about the call for abstracts, please do not hesitate to contact Chamsy el-Ojeili at chamsy.el-ojeili@vuw.ac.nz

Streams

The 2025 conference also includes 4 following streams:

1. Critical social work stream:

This stream calls for papers that explore any aspect of the turbulent times and challenges facing social work and the communities we serve. We are also interested in analyses that advance real utopias: hopeful responses and visions for social equity and social justice at the level of the individual, family, community, region, country or planet. We especially welcome papers from Indigenous and/or postgraduate researchers. A full call for abstracts can be found here.

Please send your abstracts (100-word max) to Donna Baines at donna.baines@ubc.ca or Liz Beddoe at e.beddoe@auckland.ac.nz or Neil Ballantyne at neil.ballantyne@openpolytechnic.ac.nz  by 10 September 2025. Confirmations will be sent out around mid-September 2025.

2. Critical Health Studies stream:

Throughout Aotearoa New Zealand sociologists, anthropologists, social psychologists, health promotors, public health researchers, a range of practicing health professionals, and many more, are engaged in what we could term critical health studies. In early 2024 many turned up for the In Sickness and In Health conference held in Auckland, a rare occasion where so many researchers coming from different disciplinary backgrounds came together in Aotearoa to critically engage with a wide range of health concerns. Inspired by that, and as a possible starting point for more regular events of this nature, we are putting out a call for conference papers for a critical health studies stream to be held as part of the annual conference of the 2025 Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand. We welcome papers on any health-related topics where critical thinking, in its wide range of senses, is deployed.

Abstracts for this stream must be submitted to Kevin Dew at kevin.dew@vuw.ac.nz by 10 September 2025.

3. Critical criminology stream

Critical criminology offers a lens through which to question the status quo and imagine the future. It encompasses a range of perspectives, including feminist, queer, Indigenous, environmental, and abolitionist approaches united by a shared commitment to understanding the social, political, and economic forces that shape how we think about crime and social harm. For SAANZ 2025, we invite critical criminologists, and those working in related fields, to join us in sharing their insights, ideas, and experiences.

Abstracts for this stream must be submitted to Chamsy el-Ojeili at chamsy.el-ojeili@vuw.ac.nz by 10 September 2025.

4. Gender and sexuality stream

Opposition to “gender ideology,” queer theory, and any critical scholarship on questions of gender and sexuality has gained renewed political traction in recent times. Such political opposition underlines the significance of gender and sexuality scholarship. We welcome abstracts for papers in the field of gender and sexuality that engage with the conference theme of finding beauty and joy in the work we do, along with papers in the general field of gender and sexuality.

Abstracts for this stream must be submitted to Rhonda Shaw (rhonda.shaw@vuw.ac.nz) by 10 September 2025.

This conference is in-person only. All participants whose papers are accepted must register for the conference by 1 November 2025 at the latest. Presenters who register after this date will be included in the conference programme at the discretion of the conference organisers.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

Abstracts must be sent as a Word Document (not a PDF). Please include the name(s), institutional affiliation, and email contacts of the presenter(s), a presentation title, and a 200-word-abstract (100-word for the critical social work stream), as well as 3 key words. The deadline of abstract submission is 10 September 2025

• Abstracts for critical health stream must be submitted to Kevin Dew at kevin.dew@vuw.ac.nz 
• Abstracts for critical social work is 100-word max and must be submitted to Donna Baines at donna.baines@ubc.ca or Liz Beddoe at e.beddoe@auckland.ac.nz or Neil Ballantyne at neil.ballantyne@openpolytechnic.ac.nz 
• Abstracts for gender and sexuality stream must be submitted to Rhonda Shaw at Rhonda.shaw@vuw.ac.nz  
• All other abstracts (general and criminology stream) must be submitted to Chamsy el-Ojeili at chamsy.el-ojeili@vuw.ac.nz 

Casual conference buffet dinner

The conference dinner will be held on campus at Milk & Honey.

This year we are opting for a more casual approach, with grazing tables being provided across a couple of hours—think pizzas, tacos, rather than a three-course meal. The intention here is that this will allow for more mingling, and means that people can turn up early or stay on later to have a drink with colleagues if they want. This has also meant a lotwer cost for the dinner, which we hope will enable more students to attend.

Cost: $50 per person (does not include drinks). You can add a dinner ticket when you register here.

Conference organisers have secured a discount at the Accor Hotel Group, which includes various hotels in Wellington such as Ibis, Novotel, Sofitel and Movenpick—all of which are in close proximity to the University. The price depends on the hotel you pick. The starting price is at $160 per night inclusive of GST (Ibis hotel).

Please use this link to book: https://accorevents.com/offers/-saanz-conference-2025

*Discount applies to stays between 02/12/2025 – 06/12/2025 (inclusive) only. If you wish to stay outside of these dates, kindly contact our reservations team on H3049-RE3@accor.com to request a quote.

Keynote 1: Prof Derek Kawati, Wellington School of Architecture, Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington

Architecture in the Polycrisis: Beauty, Obligation, and an Indigenous Ethics of Design.

Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay and the United Kingdom’s Eden Project are well-known examples of architecture’s potential to redefine sustainability as a sensorially rich, dynamic, collective experience. These projects transform abstract climate imperatives into visceral and enriching encounters, offering respite in an era of doom-ism and poly-crisis. However, their reliance on environment as spectacle as a catalyst for stewardship for the speaker reveals a paradox: while beauty and joy in this instance potentially democratises environmental engagement en-mass, it also runs the risk of reducing care to a transactional and consummable act, prioritising individual pleasure over collective concerns. In contrast, indigenous epistemologies center ecological reciprocity and balance. The challenge here is for this generation of Māori architects, designers and cultural advocates to confront the legacies of New Zealand’s colonial architecture and the objectification and commodification found in ‘global’ sustainability narratives. A range of hybrid sustainable built projects undertaken by a new generation of Māori designers and clients will be discussed, highlighting the potency of alignments between Māori ecological knowledge and Western architectural traditions.

Biography:

Derek Kawiti is a Professor of Architecture, specialising in Māori-designed environments and the integration of robotics and digital tools in architecture. He leads post graduate research labs—SITUA, Indigenous Material Domains, and Corporate Spheres which are focused on “re-indigenising” architectural knowledge through computational exploration of customary spatial practices (tikanga/kawa), Māori geometries, and materials. He is a technical advisor to the Pacific Islands Standards Committee (PISC) and is a Principal Investigator for the MacDiarmid Institute. He is a director of interdisciplinary Maori architectural firm CILOARC and is an associate director (cultural/digital lead) at Peddle Thorp Architects, Auckland. With 25+ years of global experience (New Zealand, London, Caribbean, Italy), he advises industry leaders and collaborates internationally on design strategies. His academic and professional work, is based firmly in his Māori heritage, where he examines the convergence of Indigenous knowledge systems with emerging digital technologies in architecture.

Keynote 2: Assoc Prof Liana MacDonald (Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Koata), Co-Director of Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa | National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. 

Restoring/Restorying Peace and Conflict Studies at Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa

The field of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) rose to prominence after the Cold War, often aligning with Western militarisation framed as the pathway to human rights, freedom, and democracy. While there is now a strong impetus to decolonise, the discipline’s core concepts remain largely Eurocentric and do not always reflect Indigenous understandings of peace, justice, freedom, or peacebuilding. In this presentation, I introduce a storytelling methodology of loose ends to highlight the lived, embodied, and ongoing nature of decolonial work. I then show how a Pasifika “whole of life” philosophy, in dialogue with Indigenous sociology and Māori philosophy, ground this methodological approach and advances Peace In Conflict: a new Indigenous-centred scholarly pathway for thinking about peace and conflict that acknowledges the relational, contradictory, and spiritual dimensions of human and non-human relations. The second part of the presentation outlines four dimensions of the Peace In Conflict framework, shared through storytelling methods. This approach also maps the work that Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa | The National Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies (TAOR) is undertaking to reorient PACS towards an Indigenous-centred future for staff, stakeholders, and students.

Biography

Liana MacDonald (Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Koata) is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa | National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. Her research spans land education, Māori history, cultural memory, and settler colonialism. She is currently working with five iwi and Boulcott whānau descendants on a Hutt City Council project to redevelop the memorial to the 1846 battle of Boulcott’s Farm. Liana serves on the editorial boards of several international journals and has co-authored Fragments from a Contested Past: Remembrance, Denial and New Zealand History (Bridget Williams Books, 2022) and co-edited the Genealogy special issue Decolonial (and Anti-Colonial) Interventions to Genealogy (2024). Her sole-authored book How to de/Construct a Settler Fantasy is forthcoming with Bridget Williams Books in 2026. As Chair of Māori, Moriori and Indigenous Peace Studies, Liana is interested in how Indigenous peoples in the Global North and Pacific experience colonialism and intrastate violence, and how they envision and pursue peace today through relational, non-violent strategies that advance anti-colonial and Te Tiriti justice, Indigenous resurgence, and Māori and Pasifika philosophies.

The SAANZ2025 Student Sessions will be held on the first morning of the conference.

Further details will be provided in the draft programme – to be released late October.

The conference programme will be available through Sched closer to the conference.

General contact/enquiries

Dr Janepicha Cheva-Isarakul
Janepicha.cheva-isarakul@vuw.ac.nz