[Air-L] AoIR Best Dissertation Award 2022

[Michelle, Association of Internet Researchers]

We are pleased to announce the Best Dissertation Award for 2022 goes to Dr.
Sebastián Lehuedè “Governing Data in Modernity/Coloniality: Astronomy Data
in the Atacama Desert and the Struggle for Collective Autonomy.“

*Congratulations, Dr. Lehuedè!*

Dr. Lehuedè’s dissertation is a fascinating study of astronomy data
produced in one of the least light polluted sites in the world. The
dissertation tackles the question of data governance in an inspiring and
innovative way theoretically combining discourse theoretical approaches
with sociological and anthropological perspectives. Dr. Lehuedè’s research
shows the limits of Eurocentric concepts of open data and data sovereignty
from the proposition of a collective autonomy of data, making thus an
important contribution to the ongoing debates on postcolonial foundations
of datafication and data governance.

The Committee also recognizes Dr. Rebekah Larsen’s “Exploring Definitional
Power in the Digital Age: A Case Study of Right to Be Forgotten Framing”
and Dr. Karina Rider’s “Volunteering the Valley: Designing Technology for
the Common Good in the San Francisco Bay Area“ with an Honorable Mention.

Dr. Larsen’s dissertation provides a very timely study on internet
governance, user data processing and control. The study is particularly
interesting as it looks at the right to be forgotten as an “activist” tool
for marginalized groups but also on the other hand how it serves as an
exclusionary measure. The dissertation thus not only deals with many issues
important in internet scholarship but has implications for policy debates
along the North-South divide.

Dr. Rider’s dissertation is excellent in demonstrating how “tech can save
the world” reproduces itself as an ideology, epistemology, and belief. The
disseration presents an exciting study of the emerging and important
Technology for Public Good/Civic Technology movement and how it plays out
in the hotbed of technology that is the Silicon Valley. The dissertation,
thus, speaks to issues that are critical to both internet scholarship and
the current public debate about technology, making an original contribution
to digital justice and digital labor area.

AoIR is grateful for the hard work by this year’s Best Dissertation Award
committee: Andra Siibak, Chair, Rafael Grohmann, Anne Kaun, John McNutt,
and Lynete Mukhongo. Thank you for your hard work and professionalism
during the review process.