Decolonising the Digital Awards 2026


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IAMCR invites applications for the thematic award Decolonising the Digital. The award will recognise outstanding academic work that contribute to our understanding of the new global dynamics of digital politics, cultures, and infrastructures, with the aim of identifying modes of control and resistance, and ultimately, challenging digital colonialism.

About the award

The term digital colonialism refers to the ways dominant powers exploit digital infrastructure, data, and knowledge—alongside control over computational technologies and labor disparities—to reinforce global dependencies rooted in historical colonialism. The broader concept of Decolonizing the Digital addresses the political, economic, and social domination enabled by digital technologies, as well as the resistance movements challenging these practices. Research on digital colonialism critically examines how these technologies deepen existing inequalities and introduce new forms of exploitation, discrimination, and control.

The list of topics below is provided to demonstrate the breadth of research that may be considered, not to limit it.

  • The installation and provision of digital surveillance technologies and services
  • A new ‘scramble for Africa’ in which Big Tech actors race to install infrastructure and extract data on the African continent 
  • Digital imperialism: using tech power to control and shape politics, the social, economic and technological wherewithal
  • Extraction of natural resources required by the global tech sector
  • International and multilateral movements that seek to redress or deepen digital inequalities
  • Data mining/extraction and innovative strategies by civil and other actors to resist these
  • Use of intellectual property rights, software licensing etc. to create knowledge dependencies
  • South-to-South coalitions and conflicts that either challenge or reinforce digital colonialism
  • Domination of local digital ecosystems through acquisitions and anticompetitive practices
  • Discursive/ideological domination and resistance.

The award has an interdisciplinary scope as it potentially encompasses academic research in the fields of international communication, political economy, policy studies, law, digital divide, platform regulation etc. Consequently, eligible papers may be submitted to any of IAMCR's various thematic sections and working groups. In addition, the theme has an explicitly global focus, which will encourage the exchange of ideas between and the contributions of scholars from diverse regions and academic traditions.

Awarded papers will be acknowledged with a USD 750 grant. There will be no ranking among the awarded papers.

Requirements

To be selected for the 2026 Decolonising the Digital Award, papers are required to display scholarly excellence, to be innovative in nature, and to have an explicit focus on Decolonising the Digital.

Eligibility

  • Open to scholars at all career stages.
  • Papers must have been accepted for presentation at IAMCR 2026 by one of IAMCR's sections or working groups. See the calls for proposals of IAMCR's thematic sections and working groups
  • Papers should have a maximum of 7,000 words (abstract and references will not count towards the paper limit)
  • Work must not have be published or firmly committed elsewhere
  • Applicants must be current IAMCR members for the year 2026 (individual or institutional).
  • IAMCR 2026 will offer several awards recognising outstanding academic work submitted to the conference. A paper may be submitted to only one of the following: the Herbert I. Schiller Award, the Decolonising the Digital Award, the Reformulation of Media Production in a Global Context of Automation Award, or the Urban Communication Award.

Procedure

  • An abstract of the paper must be submitted to any IAMCR section or working group in response to the 2026 calls for papers.
  • The full paper must be received by 31 March 2026.
  • Only papers with abstracts accepted for presentation at IAMCR 2026 may be considered for the award.
  • Each of the three awards comprises a cash prize of USD 750.
  • The Award Selection Committee will select up to three papers, but can decide to award fewer or none. Decisions of the Award Selection Committee will be final.
  • Award-winning papers will be considered for publication in the journal Interactions.
  • If an award is made, the author(s) will be notified by 28 April.

Deadlines

There are two deadlines to keep in mind.

  • 3 February at 23h59 UTC is the deadline to submit an abstract of the paper to any IAMCR section or working group.
  • 31 March at 23h59 UTC is the deadline to submit the final paper via an online form that will be made available here.

Decolonising the Digital Award 2026 Selection Committee

  • Weiyu Zhang, Chair (National University of Singapore)
  • Andrea Medrado (University of Exeter, UK)
  • Benjamin Birkinbine (University of Nevada, Reno, USA)
  • Claudia Padovani (University of Padova, Italy)
  • Guy Hoskins (Carleton University, Canada)
  • Julia Pohle (WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany)
  • Leah Komen (Daystar University, Kenya)
  • Usha Raman (University of Hyderabad, India)