Steve Roberts is Professor of Sociology and currently the Interim Head of School of Social Sciences.

Steve is an internationally recognised expert in research in two areas: i) changes and continuitiues in boys and men's masculinity practices, and; ii) inequalities in young people’s transitions to adulthood. The former includes boys and men’s engagement with trisky drinking; sexting; the manosphere; computer gaming; emotionality; violence; domestic labour; paid care work; compulsory and post-compulsory education. He has published widely in a variety of esteemed international journals, including The Sociological Review, Sociology, British Journal of Sociology, Journal of Youth Studies, and New Media and Society. He is also (co)author of three monographs, (co)editor of six edited volumes, and co-author of the teaching text book 'Youth Sociology' (Palgrave, 2020). 

Steve has been awarded competitive research funding from the UK's ESRC, the Australian Research Council, VicHealth, ANROWS, Dept. of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dept. of Education, Skills and Employment, Dept. of Employment and Workplace Relations, the Lego Foundation, the Australian Education Union, among others. He currently co-leads (with Dr Stephanie Wescott) a program of research on the impact of the manosphere in Australian schools. This research was awarded The Australian Sociological Association 2025 Sociology in Action prize, recognising the imapct of the reserach upon scholarship, policy and practice in a variety of sectors. 

He has also conducted a suite of work (with Dr Karla Elliott), funded by VicHealth, looking to understand, evaluate and improve 'healthy masculinity' interventions aimed at boys and young men. With Riikka Prattes and Karla Elliott, he has recently completed an ARC funded project on men's expreince of front line, low paid care work. Steve was also lead CI for the prize winning 'Men’s Risky Drinking' project, funded by VicHealth, and co-lead (with A/Prof Brady Robards) of research that was foundational to the development of Australia's 2021 Youth Policy Framework, funded by the Dept of Prime Minster & Cabinet. 

Steve makes regular contrbutions to the media and/or other forms of public discussion. He writes frequently, for example, for the ABC, the Conversation and Monash Lens, and has appeared in a raft of media outlets in print, TV and radio nationally and internationally (e.g. in the USA, England, Canada, France, Holland, Germany, Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates).

Steve is Associate Editor of Journal of Youth Studies, and sits on the Editorial Boards of the BSA leading journal Sociology and also of Ankara University SBF Journal. He also currently serves co-editor of the book series Emerald Advances in Masculinities, as a commitee member of the Alliance of Working Class Academics and as a Director of the Board of Respect Victoria. He has previously been co-editor in chief of Sociological Research Online, and has sat on the Editorial Board of Men and Masculinities, Movember's Global Men's Health Advisory Committee,  VicHealth's inaugural Research Expert Advisory Panel, and he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Australian Institute for Family Studies ‘Ten to Men’ study from 2019-2021. 

Steve joined Monash University in February 2015, and was based in the School of Social Sciences for seven years before moving to the Faculty of Education for nearly four years, and then returned to the Faculty of Arts i late 2025. He has served as Associate Dean Graduate Research in both the Facultyof Arts and the Faculty of Education and has been the Head of School of Education, Culture and Society. Prior to joining Monash he held ongoing academic positions at the School of Education, University of Southampton, and then at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent. Steve obtained an MA in Social Research Methods, a PhD in Social Policy (both funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council) and his teaching qualifications all at University of Kent.  

Steve is keen to hear from prospective research students who are interested in projects focussing on some aspect of either (broadly speaking):

1) men, masculinity, inequality and social change –  I am particularly intersted in projects looking to explore changes and continuities in masculinity, especially in respect of the rise of the so called 'manosphere'. But also issues such as men's employment, boys or men's education trajectories and expriences, risk taking, friendships, social media engagments, homophobia, sexuality, drinking practices etc. 

2) young people’s transition to adulthood and their experience of the contemporary world - this might be gender identities (especially masculinity), housing, family formation, leisure lives, risk taking, cultural consumption, education or work, for example.