The Newcastle Youth Studies Centre is a collaborative group of researchers with expertise in the social, political/economic and cultural dimensions of youth in Australia and internationally, located within the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle.

We represent one of the most significant concentrations of youth research expertise in Australia. The aim of the Centre is to understand the construction and experience of youth within the transforming contexts that shape young lives.

Our expertise includes the role of youth in labour force transformation; youth, credit and debt; intergenerational relationships and housing; Indigenous youth; youth justice; child protection, young people in out of home care; young people’s mental health; young people and digital technologies; gender and wellbeing; class and popular culture; young people and social theory.

The Centre also includes a wide range of methodological expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methods, including: large surveys, interviews, focus groups, visual methods, photovoice, bodymapping, ethnography, autoethnography, participatory action research, program evaluation, figurative methodology, longitudinal research and discourse analysis.

The Centre is affiliated with an international network of youth researchers and centres. These include the Centre for Urban Youth Research (Carleton University) and the Finnish Youth Research Society.

The Centre offers a strong and collaborative environment for PhD supervision. Centre members welcome inquiries from prospective PhD students wishing to pursue topics related to youth from a social scientific perspective. Contact details and areas of expertise are listed in our ‘People’ tab.

The Centre's research falls into the following FOR Codes:

  • 441015 Sociology of the life course
  • 440709 Public policy
  • 441012 Sociology of inequalities
  • 441008 Sociology of culture
  • 441001 Applied sociology, program evaluation and social impact assessment
  • 440106 Medical Anthropology
  • 440107 Social and Cultural Anthropology
  • 350504 Industrial and employee relations
  • 350507 Workplace wellbeing and quality of working life
  • 441010 Sociology of Gender
  • 441011 Sociology of Health

Follow the Newcastle Youth Studies Centre on Twitter @studies_youth and Facebook.