Institute for Culture and Society

Western Sydney University

Located in Parramatta, Western Sydney, the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) sits on the traditional lands and waters of the Burramattagal people of the Dharug Nation. The ICS was founded in 2012 after a decade as The Centre for Cultural Research. It was established by a group of world-renowned scholars which are currently our Emeritus Professors at the Institute. They include Kay Anderson, Ien Ang, Tony Bennett, Katherine Gibson, Gay Hawkins, Bob Hodge, David Rowe, and Deborah Stevenson. Recent Institute Directors include Paul James (2015–2019) and Heather Horst (2020–2024). Our Institute’s current senior staff members comprise a unique group of scholars including Juan Francisco Salazar (Interim Institute Director), Brett Neilson (Deputy Director), Ned Rossiter (Director of Research), Malini Sur (Director of HDR and Teaching), Gerard Goggin, Louise Crabtree-Hayes, Greg Noble, Paul James, Amanda Third, Phillippa Collins, Denis Byrne, Fiona Cameron and Jessica Weir. In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has witnessed unprecedented changes in scale and velocity. Rampant urbanization, coupled with momentous biodiversity loss, ongoing deforestation and extensive extractivism, accompanied by the profound impacts of AI on society at large. Concurrently, new modes of populism have emerged, obscuring tensions between libertarianism and nationalism amidst wars, genocide, starvation, supply chain disruptions and the fracturing of geopolitical frameworks and humanity at large. These massive changes have engendered record numbers of displaced peoples, refugees, and climate migrants, while exacerbating planetary scale environmental crises, economic instability, and social inequality. The resulting turbulence and unpredictability pose massive challenges for culture and society and demand novel perspectives, approaches and methodologies. Our research agenda responds to these multidimensional transformations in culture and society, producing new analytical perspectives, methods, and theories. Championing collaborative engaged research in the humanities and social sciences, the Institute is renowned for its world-leading interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research that has tangible positive effects. Our researchers engage in partnerships with government, industry,  and community organizations and with many Australian and international universities in a broad range of fields including cultural studies, sociology, human geography, anthropology, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, history, communication and media studies, museum and heritage studies, Indigenous studies, and sustainability studies. Our doctoral and postgraduate programs at ICS have a strong reputation for academic excellence in pursuit of local and global contributions. Our community of doctoral scholars spans 19 countries, creating a rich tapestry of global research perspectives. The ICS is also home to two strategic research centres: the Young and Resilient Research Centre (YRRC) and the Urban Transformations Research Centre (UTRC) and hosts a diverse range of School-based members across HASS and STEM disciplines at various stages in their research careers.