iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Award 2026
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The iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Award is a prestigious annual competition introduced in 2013 that recognizes outstanding work in the information field. Nominations are solicited from all members of the iSchools organization and judged by a committee drawn from leading international iSchools.
The iSchools Organization is proud to announce the winner of the 2026 Doctoral Dissertation Award: Dr. Tyler Youngman (Syracuse University, USA) nominated by Prof. Beth Patin for the Dissertation "The Monumental Challenges of Pastmaking" won the Award in this year's very close competition. The 2026 iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Runner up is Dr. Meredith Dedema (Indiana University Bloomington, USA) nominated by Prof. Howard Rosenbaum for the Dissertation "Artificial Intelligence for Civic Engagement: A Social Informatics Study of AI-driven Public Consultation Platforms in U.S. Local Governments". Congratulations!
The winner - Dr. Tyler Youngman
Dr. Tyler Youngman is an assistant professor in library science at East Carolina University. Their agenda examines how bibliographical artifacts and preservation infrastructures mediate performances of pastmaking. Dr. Youngman’s scholarship on epistemicide, epistemic injustice, and cultural heritage informatics has appeared in Journal of Documentation, Knowledge Organization, Journal of Digital Social Research, and Journal of Information Ethics. Their international recognitions include best paper awards from the Association for Library and Information Science Education (2022, 2023, 2024), Association for Information Science and Technology (2023), and International Journal of Information, Diversity, and Inclusion (2023).
The Runner up - Dr. Meredith Dedema
Dr. Meredith Dedema is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Information Management, Peking University, China. Dr. Dedema received her Ph.D. in Information Science at Indiana University Bloomington, advised by Dr. Howard Rosenbaum. Her research focuses on social informatics, algorithmic management, human-AI collaboration, digital government, and AI governance. She has published in leading information science venues, including JASIST, New Media & Society, and the CHI conference. Her scholarly contributions have been recognized through multiple awards, including the ASIS&T SIG-Social Informatics Best Paper Award, Emerging Social Informatics Scholar Award, ASIS&T SIG-AI Best Presentation Award, and the Luddy Outstanding Service Award from Indiana University Bloomington.
Out of 35 nominations from iSchools around the globe, Tyler Youngman was evaluated as the best in a very tight competition. The winner of the 2026 Doctoral Dissertation Award will receive a cash prize of 2,500 USD, the Runner up receives a cash prize of 1,000 USD.
The iSchools Organization would also like to honorably mention the following 3 additional finalists, all evaluated as excellent works:
Aimee Fletcher (University of Glasgow) Dissertation Title: "Neurodivergence in Museums: Making the Cultural Heritage Sector Accessible Using Participatory Practices"
Bri Watson (The University of British Columbia) Dissertation Title: "Expanding the Margins in the History of Sexuality & Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums & Special Collections (GLAMS)"
Pelle Tracey (University of Michigan) Dissertation Title: "The Atomization of Vulnerability: An Ethnographic Investigation of Quantification and Automation in Philadelphia’s Homeless Services Coordinated Entry System"
The iSchools Organization would like to thank the Doctoral Dissertation Award Reviewing Committee Members Eytan Adar (University of Michigan), Lu An (Wuhan University), Nazanin Andalibi (University of Michigan), Rajasekar Arcot (The University of California at Chapel Hill), Rhiannon Bettiva (Simmons University), Tobias Blanke (University of Amsterdam), Hanna Carlsson (Linnaeus University), Hsia-Ching Chang (University of North Texas), Chaomei Chen (Drexel University), Jiangping Chen (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Kaitlin Costello (Rutgers), Anind Dey (University of Washington), Ina Fourie (University of Pretoria), Kasey Garrison (Charles Sturt University), Dion Goh Hoe Lian (Nanyang Technological University), Colin Gray (Indiana University Bloomington), Fredrik Hanell (Linnaeus University), Noriko Hara (Indiana University Bloomington), Jingrui He (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), James Howison (The University of Texas at Austin), Lisa Hussey (Simmons University), Emi Ishita (Kyushu University), Robert Jäschke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Tingting Jiang (Wuhan University), Michelle Kazmer (Florida State University), Masanori Koizumi (University of Tsukuba), Maja Krtalić (Victoria University Wellington), Håkon Larsen (Oslo Metropolitan University), Reeva Lederman (The University of Melbourne), Louise Limberg (University of Borås), Keith Marzullo (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Miriam Matteson (Kent State University), Shawne Miksa (University of North Texas), Staša Milojevic (Indiana University Bloomington), Atsuyuki Morishima (University of Tsukuba), Melissa Ocepek (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Gillian Oliver (Monash University), Devendra Potnis (University of Tennessee Knoxville), Colin Rhinesmith (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Fernanda Ribeiro (University of Porto), Ian Ruthven (University of Strathclyde), Ellie Sayyad Abdi (Curtin University), Laura Sbaffi (University of Sheffield), Sara Schwebel (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Teresa Silveira (University of Porto), Beth St. Jean (University of Maryland), Rebecca Stallworth (Simmons University), Brenton Stewart (University of Arizona), Nicholas Weber (University of Washington), Kelvin White (University of Oklahoma) and Pengyi Zhang (Peking University) for their outstanding work for the committee.
The Doctoral Dissertation Award is given annually. More information about current and past Award winners can be found on the iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Award website.