Sexualities and Genders Research

SAGR Book Collage

Sexualities and Genders Research (SaGR) at Western Sydney University brings together academics from across the university with expertise in sexualities and genders. It encompasses all those undertaking research with sexualities and / or genders elements, including feminist and queer research. This includes research wherein these facets of identity are part of a more complex picture of diversity and intersectionality, including race, ethnicity, CALD, different ability, class / SES, and location. It is inherently 
multi-disciplinary, with attention to decolonisation in research.

Our interdisciplinary approach to sexuality and gender research spans sociology, geography, cultural studies, education, medicine, critical psychology, criminology, social welfare, equity studies, queer studies, and uses innovative qualitative and quantitative research methods to contribute to the development of knowledge. Our aim is to advance interdisciplinary knowledge and theory in ways that reshape policy, improve professional practices and make a positive difference in the health and wellbeing of children, young people, adults, their families and communities in Greater Western Sydney and beyond. This is an epistemological, pedagogical and ethical project of both exploratory and engaged research in the fields of sexuality and gender to build new knowledge, address discrimination, and build ethical relationships in organisations and communities in an era of dramatic social, cultural, economic and political change.

Our research on sexuality and gender seeks to both identify and describe the everyday practices through which individuals and communities are governed, and offer interventions that solve specific problems and open up possibilities for social conditions to be other than they are. We do this through the generation and dissemination of new knowledge through public health campaigns, policy recommendations, pedagogical programs, publications, social media, practical research-based interventions and consultancy.

Past and current projects, which can be seen in detail on the ‘research projects’ page, include

  • Development of evidence-based school intervention program to address violence against women and girls in Western Sydney, in conjunction with Western Sydney Wanderers football club and Paramatta City Council
  • Research with ACON about the experiences of LGBTQ people in Western Sydney, focusing on identifying and prioritising strategies to improve the wellbeing and resilience of members of the LGBTQ communities in the region. The project also focuses on identifying strategies to help build capacity amongst LGBTQ community leaders in order to better support their communities.
  • Game to Play: Research about same sex attracted and gender diverse young people’s experiences of sport and exercise, for the development of recommendations to sporting organisations
  • Projects to understand gender and sexuality diversity in schools. An ARC funded project to understand how parents of gender and sexuality diverse children navigate their child’s experiences in schools, and the Free2Be? national survey of Australian sexuality and gender diverse secondary students.
  • Redressing the Promotion Gap to understand the path to Associate Professor and Professor for women