Georgetown Professor’s Book on Social Movements Wins Multiple Prestigious Awards

Georgetown University in Qatar Professor Mohamed Zayani’s book Networked Publics and Digital Contention (Oxford UP) has been recently recognized by a cluster of prestigious awards. These multiple accolades were bestowed by leading academic and professional associations in such varied fields of study as international communication, internet studies, media sociology and global studies, and recognize outstanding scholarly contributions. 

This recognition tops the many favorable reviews the book has garnered since its publication. Manuel Castells described Zayani’s book as “a major contribution to the understanding of social movements of the digital age.” Brandeis University political science professor Eva Bellin also lauded the book as “an extraordinarily rich and empirically anchored account,” and the sociologist Graig Calhoon commended it for its “superb analysis.”

Networked Publics and Digital Contention won “The Global Communication and Social Change Best Book Award” from the International Communication Association (ICA) and “The Sue DeWine Distinguished Award for a Scholarly Book” from the US National Communication Association (NCA). It went on to win two other prizes: “The Communication, Information Technologies and Media Sociology Book Award,” which is awarded by the American Sociological Association (ASA), and “The Toyin Falola Best Book Award,” which is bestowed by the Association of Global South Studies (AGSS). 

Based on original field research, this timely book offers a vivid account of how information and communication technologies are reconfiguring social movements while also providing a theoretical framework for understanding networked activism in the information age. 

Networked Publics and Digital Contention was published as part of the Oxford Studies in Digital Politics Series, edited by Andrew Chadwick. “That Zayani’s book won multiple awards, from different associations, attests not just to the impact of his work, but also its breadth,” said Oxford University Press senior editor Angela Chnapko. “It is a great achievement.”

Mohamed Zayani is a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and the founding director of the Media and Politics Program. He is also an affiliate faculty with the Communication, Culture and Technology Graduate Program; the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program; and the Mortara Center for International Studies.

Zayani’s book Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings (with Suzi Mirgani) and the newly-released Digital Middle East: State and Society in the Information Age, which are the culmination of a multi-year collaborative research initiative by Georgetown University’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), were also published by Oxford University Press.