Professor Melanie White
PhD (Carleton University) MA (Carleton University) BA (University of British Columbia)
Melanie is a Sociologist who specialises in classical and contemporary social theory. Born and educated in Canada with a PhD from Carleton University in Ottawa, Melanie teaches into the Sociology program for the School of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture. She was Deputy Head, School of Social Sciences from 2020-2023 where she held the Education (Learning & Teaching) portfolio.
Melanie has always been fascinated by what we mean by the 'social.' Her current research considers how competing ideas of sympathy helped to distinguish the social from the biological in the development of the discipline of sociology in 19C France. She has a particular interest in the social theories of Emile Durkheim, Gabriel Tarde, Henri Bergson, Michel Foucault and Georges Canguilhem. She is interested in questions about the relations between habits & creativity, error & uncertainty, and in finding the point at which the ordinary becomes extraordinary in everyday life. She also enjoys rediscovering lost and forgotten thinkers and considering how they contribute to contemporary debates in social theory and our understanding of everyday life.
She has published in high-ranking international journals such as Body & Society, Journal of Classical Sociology and Economy and Society. Her book Bergson, Politics, and Religion co-edited with Alexandre Lefebvre (University of Sydney) is published with Duke University Press.
Melanie is also Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada - Postdoctoral Fellowship, York University, Canada
Canada Research Chair - Postdoctoral Fellowship, York University, Canada
2023 Award for Excellence in Educational Mentorship, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, Staff Awards, UNSW Sydney
2022 Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, Staff Awards, UNSW Sydney
2019 Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), UK
2019 The Michael Wearing Memorial Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Research Supervision, UNSW Sydney
2018 UNSW Scientia Education Academy Fellow
2017 Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (General Category), UNSW Sydney
2016 Excellence in Postgraduate Research Supervision Award, ARC Postgraduate Student Council, UNSW Student Life and Dean of Graduate Research School, UNSW Sydney
2015 Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence (General Category), Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW Sydney
2006 Nominated, Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching, Trent University, Canada
2002 Teaching Excellence Award, Carleton University Students' Association, Carleton University, Canada
Research Areas: Classical and contemporary social theory, political theory, citizenship studies, sociological theory
Current Research Projects
Bergson's Social and Political Thought
In collaboration with Alexandre Lefebvre (University of Sydney), this project develops the political, social and religious philosophy of Henri Bergson, an early twentieth century French philosopher.
The Animal Question in Society
This project considers how social thinkers such as Auguste Comte, Jean-Marie Guyau, and Alfred Espinas understood the relation between human and nonhuman animals in order to interrogate how the social and the biological were conceptualised in 19C France.
Unsentimental Sympathies
Through rich everyday examples, this project demonstrates how the idea of 'fellow-feeling' is easily converted into an unsentimental sympathy.
Future Research Projects
Life, Vitalism and Society
This project considers the underpinning vitalism of three 20C sociological thinkers in the German tradition: Georg Simmel, Alfred Schutz and Max Scheler.
Affiliations and Membership
Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University, Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Member de la Société des amis de Bergson
Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University, Department of Sociology & Anthropology
My Research Supervision
Nell Whittaker (PhD Social Sciences) Love as a Moral Emotion. (Primary Supervisor: Melanie White: Seondary Supervisor: Professor Jan Breckenridge). Sociology, UNSW Sydney.
Ruth Waterman (MRes Medicine) Operator experiences of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA point-of-care testing in Australia (Primary Supervisor: Dr. Lise Lafferty; Secondary Supervisor: Melanie White). Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney.
Connie Byrne (PhD Social Sciences) Social (Re)Production: Theories of Value in a Financialising Neoliberalism (Joint Supervisors: Melanie White and Dr. Andrew Clarke). Social Sciences, UNSW Sydney.
Dovi Seldowitz (PhD Social Sciences, Sociology) Emancipatory Inclinations of a Religious Elite: Toward a New Sociology of the Sermon (Primary Supervisor: Melanie White; Secondary Supervisor: A/Professor Geoffrey Levey). Sociology, UNSW Sydney.
Rickie-Lee McLauren-Smith (PhD Social Sciences, Sociology) Human Value, Children and Environmental Care (Joint Supervisors: Melanie White and Dr. Andrew Clarke). Sociology, UNSW Sydney.
Roxarne Moon (PhD Social Sciences, Sociology) Folktales and the Sociology of Belonging (Primary Supervisor: Melanie White; Secondary Supervisor: Dr. Yao-Tai Li). Sociology, UNSW Sydney.
Madelene Veber (PhD Social Sciences, Sociology) The Sociology of Error (Joint Supervisors: Professor Timothy O'Leary and Melanie White), Sociology, UNSW Sydney.
PhD completions
Chelsea Van Deventer (PhD Social Sciences, Anthropology) The Question of Origins and the Ontology of the 'Individual' (Primary Supervisor: Professor Vicki Kirby; Secondary Supervisor: Melanie White) Sociology, UNSW, Sydney.
Roberta Pala (2023) How vaccines come to matter: A feminist STS encounter with the politics of vaccines (Joint Supervisors: Professor kylie valentine and Melanie White; Secondary Supervisor: Professor: Matthew Kearnes), Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney.
Joe Alizzi (2021) Defending the promise: Maintaining a place from which to act in the age of climate change (Primary Supervisor: Professor Claudia Tazreiter; Secondary Supervisor: Melanie White), Sociology, UNSW Sydney.
Mary Cantrill (2020) The Family Help Seeking Experience: Adolescent Acute Mental Illness & the First Hospitalisation (Joint Supervisors: Professor Elizabeth Fernandez and Melanie White), Social Work, UNSW Sydney.
Hawthorn James King (2019) Surprise and Seduction: Theorising Fashion via the Sociology of Wit (Primary Supervisor: Melanie White, Secondary Supervisor: Professor Paul K. Jones), Sociology, UNSW Sydney. Nominated: Best HDR publication, Dean's Research Awards (2018).
Megan Catherine Rose (2018) Affirmation and Affect: A Sociological Account of Kawaii Fashion Communities (Primary Supervisor: Melanie White, Secondary Supervisor: Professor Paul K. Jones), Sociology, UNSW Sydney. Recipient: Arts & Social Sciences Dean's Teaching Award - Rising Star (2018), Recipient of the Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award (2020).
Jacqueline Dalziell (2018)'The Blindness of the Seeing Eye': Testing Anthropocentrism (Primary Supervisor: Professor Vicki Kirby; Secondary Supervisor: Melanie White), Sociology, UNSW Sydney. Recipient: Best HDR publication, Dean's Research Awards (2018).
Na'ama Carlin (2016) Written through blood: The moral complexities of Jewish ritual circumcision (Primary Supervisor: Melanie White; Secondary Supervisor: Professor Miguel Vatter) Sociology, UNSW Sydney, Recipient of the Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award - Early Career (2019).
Catherine Tuey (2015) Remainders of Loss: Memorialization Beyond the Funeral (Joint Supervisors: Professor Alan Hunt, Carleton University, and Melanie White, UNSW Sydney), Sociology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Daniel Braun (2014) The Aesthetic Intensity of Superheroes: An Autoethnographic Interpretation of Contemporary Superhero Popularity (Joint Supervisors: Professor Bruce Curtis, Carleton University, and Melanie White, UNSW Sydney), Sociology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Will Johncock (2013) Time and Transcendence: The corporeal conditions of time and social synchronisation (Primary Supervisor: Professor Vicki Kirby; Secondary Supervisor: Melanie White) Sociology, UNSW, Sydney.
My Teaching
Teaching Areas
Classical and Contemporary Social Theory
Current Teaching
ARTS1870 Rethinking the Social (T1 2025 & T2C 2025)
ARTS2876 Understanding the Self (T1 2025)
ARTS4268 Methodologies in the Social Sciences (T1 2025)
Honours Supervision (Completed Projects, Last 10 years)
Sarah Namazie (2024) A Consideration of Grief as a Moral Emotion in the Anthropocene (Sociology, UNSW Sydney)
Nell Whittaker (2023) A Feminist Engagement with Masculinist Critiques of Marriage (Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW Sydney)
Paige Ayton (2021) Farming with Dogs: A qualitative study about how Australian male farmers reflect on working with dogs (Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW Sydney)
Zara Khan (2020) Order your essay today! Investigating the relationship between contract cheating services and student behaviours (Criminology, UNSW Sydney)
Dovber Seldowitz (2020) Women’s Leadership in the Contemporary Hasidic Community: Its Prevalence, Development, and Relation to Hasidic Religious Discourse (Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW Sydney), UNSW Medallist
Maya Ghattas (2019) In the Image of Death: A Nature Not Equal to Nature. (Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW Sydney), UNSW Medallist
Ellen Jacobs (2019) Disciplined Autonomy: A Synthesised Concept and its Holistic Analysis of Crime Prevention Techniques. (Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW Sydney)
Ida Ioannou-Marsh (2017) Political Purity and Innate Politics (Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW Sydney)
Victoria Rae (2017) Where have all the experts gone? A sociological consideration of post-truth and non-traditional news outlets (Sociology & Anthropology, UNSW Sydney)
Yvette Kiddle (2016) Imitation to Educate Children: What Happens to Liberty? (Sociology & Anthropology, UNSW Sydney)