[Air-L] Yeshua-Katz Winner of Couch Award

[Mark D. Johns]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- June 12, 2013

Contact: Dr. Mark D. Johns, Executive Director
Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research
c/o Department of Communication Studies
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA 52101
Tel: (563) 387-1347
email: mjohns at luther.edu

Yeshua-Katz Winner of Couch Award

DECORAH, Iowa -- Daphna Yeshua-Katz, Ph.D. in the Department of
Telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington, is the winner
of the 2013 Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award. The Couch Award is
presented annually by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet
Research (www.cccsir.com) and recognizes excellent student-authored
papers.

Yeshua-Katz's paper, "Beyond the Backstage: Boundary Work in the
Pro-ana Community" explores blogs in an online community for people
with eating disorders. Her work reveals that in order to protect these
virtual groups and resist the stigma associated with their illness,
bloggers construct their own unique norms and rules.

Because of an unusually large number of high-quality entries this
year, the Award committee selected two additional papers for
"Honorable Mention." Alex Leavitt, a Ph.D. student in the Annenberg
School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern
California received Honorable Mention for his paper, "No Copyright
Infringement Intended: Emergent discourses in networked media
sharing." Also, Elisabeth Montemurro, a graduate student in the School
of Communication at Loyola University received Honorable Mention for
her paper, "Interacting with #BindersFullofWomen."

The Couch Award was established in 2002 as the centerpiece of an
extensive awards program. Competition is open to graduate or
undergraduate students of all disciplines, and winners are selected by
a committee of university professors.

The winner will receive a cash award as well as the opportunity to
present her paper at an international conference. This year’s award
will be presented at the annual conference of the Association of
Internet Researchers in Denver, Colo., October 23-26.

The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research is a non-profit
organization established to promote the scholarship of the late Carl
J. Couch and his academic associates. The Center provides networking
opportunities for students and scholars who conduct social and
Internet research inspired by Couch's work.

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