Dr Dominique Carlon awarded 2026 AoIR Dissertation Award
Author ADM+S Centre
Date 2 September 2026
ADM+S Research Fellow Dr Dominique Carlon has received the 2026 AoIR Dissertation Award for her groundbreaking research examining bots as active participants in digital communities, marking the first time the award has been given to a researcher based in Australia.
The award recognises outstanding doctoral research that advances the field of internet studies, celebrating scholarly excellence, originality and significant contributions to understanding digital culture.
Dominique’s award is particularly significant as the prize has historically been dominated by researchers based in the United States and Europe. Her recognition marks the first time the AoIR Dissertation Award has been awarded to a researcher based in Australia.
Her thesis Bots and Other Platform Inhabitants: Stories of Inter-Bot Governance, Automated Play, and Protest on Reddit, examines bots as active inhabitants in digital platforms, challenging conventional views that frame them as passive tools or external entities
Grounded in three years of digital ethnographic research on Reddit, it explores how bots negotiate norms, enforce governance, and shape platform cultures alongside human users. .
Through this work, Dominique offers insights into how automated and AI-generated contributions are accepted, contested, and negotiated. The thesis identifies emerging practices and cultures of inter-bot communication, providing novel insight into relations with and between bots in digital communities.
Her work identifies emerging practices and cultures of inter-bot communication, providing novel insight into relations with and between bots in digital communities.
The AoIR Dissertation Award is presented annually by the Association of Internet Researchers to recognise an outstanding doctoral dissertation that makes a significant contribution to internet research. The award includes a cash prize.
Read the thesis Bots and Other Platform Inhabitants: Stories of Inter-Bot Governance, Automated Play, and Protest on Reddit.
Dominique acknowledged the contribution of her supervisors, Distinguished Professor Jean Burgess and Associate Professor Ariadni Matamoros-Fernández, as well as ADM+S colleagues Associate Professor James Meese, Professor Janet Roitman, Associate Professor Timothy Graham and Associate Professor Brendon Keogh.
