Sociologists join anthropologists in criticising the UWA proposal to shut down the disciplines

The Australian Anthropological Society calls the prop “intellectual vandalism” (CMM July 14) and now the Aus Sociological Society, with the Council for HASS, says deleting the disciplines, would make UWA, “an outlier among the Group of Eight and its global peers.” “A move to discontinue broad-based undergraduate majors offering key methodological and conceptual skills for the study of human society would run counter to an emerging consensus that the evolving labour market make such skills more valuable,” Alphia Possamai-Inesedy (Sociology) and Dan Woodman (C HASS) warn UWA Chancellor Robert French.

“Universities that have built their current strength and reputation on understanding and serving the communities in which they are based have large and vibrant sociology programmes … To reduce such outreach and impact would run counter to your mission of providing world-class education, research and community engagement,” they say,