Every year, we honor the Top Faculty Paper and the Top Student Paper submitted to the division. Papers submitted via the conference submission site are automatically eligible for consideration for these awards.
We also nominate a book for the association-wide Outstanding Book Award and present an Early Career Scholar Award.
To nominate yourself or others for these awards via the division, please write to the division chair, César Jiménez-Martinez at C.A.Jimenez@lse.ac.uk
ICA Fellows
2022: Jonathan Gray
2020: John Hartley
Fellows Book Award
Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture
Recent awardees
Top Faculty Paper
2024 (Gold Coast): Sharifa Simon-Roberts (Emerson College). “Not just made for my pure entertainment”: Social justice movies as tools for fueling consciousness, conversations, change
2023 (Toronto): Mohammed A Salih (Independent Scholar). On the popular geopolitics of marginalization: permissible forms of collective Political Being in Digital Food and Travel Shows
2022 (Paris): Shubhda Arora (Indian Institute of Management), Noorie Baig Azad (FLAME University), and Nidhi Kalra (FLAME University).
Trans*(gressive) Failures: Cis-heteronormative Gaze in OTT Media
2021 (Virtual due to COVID-19): Jessica Maddox (University of Alabama). Cancelling the marketplace: Truth, power, and technology in the Harper’s letter discourse
2020 (Virtual due to COVID-19): Yupei Zhao (Zhejiang University). Identity Transformation, Stigma Power and Mental Wellbeing of eSports Professional Players
2019 (Washington, DC): Yupei Zhao (Zhejiang University) and Jiayin Lu (Sun Yat-sen U). Positive energy vs. keeping it real: Political imperative and authenticity in the mainstreaming of a Chinese subculture
2018 (Prague): Simone Driessen (Erasmus University Rotterdam). Exploring the Meanings of Recurring Reunions and Fandom Across the Life Course
2017 (San Diego): Sulafa Zidani (University of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication), Limor Shifman (Hebrew U - Jerusalem), & Lihi Yariv-Laor (Hebrew U - Jerusalem). Represented Dreams: Subversive expressions in the Chinese blogosphere as alternative symbolic maps
Outstanding Book Award
2022: None awarded due to COVID-19
2021: None awarded due to COVID-19
2020: Stuart Cunningham and David Craig, Social Media Entertainment: The New Intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley (NYU Press)
2018: Nicholas A John, The Age of Sharing (Polity)
2017: Allison Perlman, Public Interests: Media Advocacy and Struggles over US Television (Rutgers University Press)
2016: Adrienne Shaw, Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture (University of Minnesota Press)
2015: Timothy Havens, Black Television Travels: African American Media around the Globe (NYU Press)
Top Student Paper
2024 (Gold Coast): Sara Reinis (University of Pennsylvania). “TikTok is one long conversation with the Universe:” Manifestation content on TikTok and how platform affordances shape emerging spirituality
2023 (Toronto): Alexis Haskell (Temple University). “He was the one the PEOPLE voted in” Analyzing Donald Trump voters as fans
2022 (Paris): Mariah L Wellman (University of Utah).“I’m just a friend who knows what they’re talking about”: How source credibility theory manifests within the wellness influencer industry on Instagram
2021 (Virtual due to COVID-19): Tate Adams (Colorado State University). Syncretic Yellowface: Vocality and Racial Mimicry in Disney's Mulan (1998)
2020 (Virtual due to COVID-19): Jabari Evans (Northwestern University). “We (MOSTLY) Carry Guns for the Internet: Relational Labor, Social Hacking and Chasing Digital Clout in Chicago’s Drill Rap Scene”
2019 (Washington, DC): Kristin Fitzsimmons (University of Minnesota). Gender Rolls: Women's Early Experiences in Tabletop Roleplaying
2018 (Prague): Nicole Strobel (University of California, Santa Barbara). Seeking Pleasure in Violence: The Vice Guide to Being a (Cool) White Dude
2017 (San Diego): Noam Gal (Hebrew U - Jerusalem). The Intellect-Physicality Divide: Digital Irony as a Social Segregation Tool
Early Career Scholar Award
2022: None awarded due to COVID-19
2021: None awarded due to COVID-19
2020: Crystal Abidin
2019: Elizabeth Ellcessor
2018: Brooke Erin Duffy
2017: Jeremy Morris
2016: Ramon Lobato
2015: Melissa Aronczyk and Derek Johnson
2014: Aswin Punathambekar
ICA Awards
Seven ICA awards are presented when qualified candidates are nominated. They are:
Outstanding Book Award
ICA Fellows Book Award
Applied Research Award
B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award
Early Career Scholar Award
Outstanding Article Award
Steven H. Chaffee Career Achievement Award
All awards and accompanying cash prizes, when appropriate, are presented to successful candidates during the awards ceremony at the Annual ICA Conference.
Awards Nomination Period
ICA BOOK AWARDS
3 September - 14 December
ICA AWARDS
2 November - 29 January