Internet Histories

Internet Histories Early Career Researcher Award 2026

Call for articles for the biennial 'Internet Histories Early Career Researcher Award' awarded by the journal

Internet Histories: Digital Technology, Culture and Society

Editors : Niels Brügger, Ian Milligan, Valérie Schafer, Anat Ben-David.

Reviews Editor: Emily Maemura

All submitted and accepted articles will be considered for inclusion in a

special issue “Internet Histories Early Career Researchers”

Do you study the past? Perhaps you even do historical research and know the difference between the Internet and the Web, and even how to historically and technically explain them? Chances are this Call for Articles may be of interest to you...

Are you conducting groundbreaking research in the field of Internet or web history? Do you spend hours immersed in the archives of the web? You didn't dare but would like to propose an article for a first publication... Would you like to share methodological and critical issues that demonstrate a promising work in progress? Do you want to discuss your project with advanced researchers who will be ready to help you develop your paper and support you in this first experience with friendliness and rigor? This Call is definitely for you!

This call for papers is addressed to early career researchers whose research focuses on the history of the internet and/or the web, and histories of digital cultures — or any historical topic within the scope of the Internet Histories journal.

We invite any interested early career researchers (masters students, doctoral students, and post-doctoral researchers) to send us an original article, between 6,000 and 8,000 words, by 1 October 2025. If the scholar has a PhD degree this must not have been awarded more than three years prior to the time of submission, exclusive of any leaves (parental, medial, etc.). Co-authored submissions will be accepted if all authors are early career researchers. In this case, the award will be evenly split between all authors.

The journal embraces empirical as well as theoretical and methodological studies within the field of the history of the internet broadly conceived — from early computer networks, Usenet and Bulletin Board Systems, to everyday uses of the Internet with the web, through to the emergence of new forms of the internet with mobile phones and tablet computers, social media, and the Internet of Things. The journal is the premier outlet for cutting-edge research in the closely related area of histories of digital cultures.

All selected articles will be published in a special issue of the journal Internet Histories in the second half of 2026 and also automatically be nominated for the “Internet Histories Early Career Researcher” Award, which carries a prize of 500 euros. In addition to the prize the winner will be asked to give a brief talk about the article (online or onsite).

The winning article will be made free to access for one year. Previous awards include:

• 2020: Sherly Haristya “The efficacy of civil society in global internet governance”.
• 2022: Kieran Hegarty “The invention of the archived web: tracing the influence of library frameworks on web archiving infrastructure”
• 2024: Kat Brewster “‘the flames are 50/50 right now’: Content moderation practices at the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States (1982-1990).

Read more about previous awards at

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rint20/collections/best-paper-prize-early-career-internet-histories

The jury of this Award is composed of the following members of the international Editorial Board of Internet Histories:

• Janet Abbate, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
• Kevin Driscoll, University of Virginia, USA
• Ignacio Siles, Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica
• Benjamin Thierry, Paris-Sorbonne University, France
• Jane Winters, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK