Rate My Professor David Farrugia

Dr David Farrugia is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, College of Human and Social Futures, at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology from the Australian National University. Farrugia's research focuses on sociological explorations of youth, particularly the interplay between identities and youth inequalities, contemporary sociological theory, youth homelessness through lenses of identities, embodied experiences, and personal relationships, and the effects of globalisation, national geographical inequalities, and social change on young people's lives, especially in regional and rural contexts. His academic interests extend to practice theories, intersections of sociological and geographical perspectives, and how young people from lower social classes navigate insecure periods amid capitalist pressures. Farrugia has authored key books including Youth Beyond the City: Thinking from the Margins (2022, with Signe Ravn), Youth, Work and the Post-Fordist Self (2021), Spaces of Youth: Work, Citizenship and Culture in a Global Context (2018), and Youth Homelessness in Late Modernity: Reflexive Identities and Moral Worth (2016). Notable journal articles encompass 'Sexual Harassment and Service Labor: Strategies and Relational Practices' (2025, Gender, Work and Organization), 'Youth and Hospitality Work: Skills, Subjectivity and Affective Labour' (2025, Journal of Sociology), 'Ambient Citizenship and Noise in the Service Economy: Young People and the Everyday Politics of Work' (2024, Citizenship Studies), and 'Hospitality Work and the Sociality of Affective Labour' (2023, The Sociological Review).

Prior to his honorary role, Farrugia served as Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Newcastle, where he co-directed the Newcastle Youth Studies Network. His teaching covers sociology, identities, studies of youth, space and place, rural and regional sociology, and contemporary theory. Farrugia's scholarship influences understandings of young workers in post-industrial economies, debt and credit consumption among youth, pandemic impacts on employment plans, affective labour in hospitality, and moral economies of service work.