Rate My Professor Steven Threadgold

Associate Professor Steven Threadgold holds the position of Associate Professor in Sociology and Anthropology within the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned his PhD in Sociology and Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and Bachelor of Arts from the same institution. Since joining as a Lecturer in 2010, he has progressed to his current role and serves as Director of the Newcastle Youth Studies Centre. Threadgold's academic career is marked by numerous accolades, including the 2020 Raewyn Connell Prize awarded by The Australian Sociological Association for his book Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles (2018, Routledge), the University Medal (2003), multiple Well Regarded Lecturer Awards (2011, 2012), and the Excellence Award for Teaching from the Faculty of Education and Arts (2009).

His research centers on youth sociology, particularly class, inequality, popular culture, social theory, and youth transitions. Current projects explore young people's financial practices involving fintech such as buy-now-pay-later schemes, cryptocurrencies, gambling apps, and debt management. He has contributed significantly through authorship of books like Bourdieu and Affect: Towards a Theory of Affective Affinities (2020, Bristol University Press), This is Sociology: A Short Introduction (co-authored with Dan Woodman, 2017 and 2021), and Class in Australia (co-edited with Jessica Gerrard, 2022). Recent peer-reviewed articles include "Hospitality workers and gentrification processes: Elective belonging and reflexive complicity" (2024, The British Journal of Sociology) and "Indebtpending: an ugly feeling of youthful financialised futurity" (2024, Journal of Youth Studies). Threadgold holds editorial positions, including digital editor for the Journal of Youth Studies, and serves on boards for The Sociological Review and Journal of Applied Youth Studies. His work has influenced discussions on affective labour, DIY cultures, and the impacts of economic precarity on young people.