Labor Tech Research Network (LaborTech) invites submissions for our fifth annual Book, Graduate Student Paper, and Social Justice Awards. The deadline is June 1.
*About Us*
LaborTech is an interdisciplinary and transnational group of over 700 experts concerned with the intersection of technology and labor. We aim to reframe conversations about technology and labor towards issues of power, inequality, and social justice, and incorporate themes of feminism, anti-racism, and transnationalism. We also seek to foster an interdisciplinary, cross-regional, and community-oriented space for discussion, collaboration, and empowerment. For a deeper discussion of our mission, please visit our webpage. For a list of our previous winners, click here.
*Call for Nominations*
As part of our mission to promote scholarship and activism towards more equitable forms of labor and technology, LaborTech is announcing a call for three awards -- Book, Graduate Student Paper, and Social Justice. These will honor projects which:
have distinctive intellectual merit or activist impact;
advance the knowledge about labor and technology in the global society; and
address our core focus on labor and technology and which may simultaneously address feminism, anti-racism, and/or transnationalism.
*Eligibility*: Works from all disciplines and methodologies are eligible for nomination. Nominations are open to members and non-members of LaborTech. We welcome self-nominations especially, but also nominations from publishers, colleagues, and others familiar with the projects. We encourage submissions from women, people of color, queer communities, and those from the global south. LaborTech executive board members and committee chairs, as well as books published in our Labor and Technology series with MIT Press, are ineligible for these awards.
*Prizes*: Winners receive a small cash award (which we hope to expand in years ahead!) and a certificate. In addition, we will promote visibility for your project by connecting with our globally-dispersed expert membership. This includes making a video of winners, to be distributed both in and out of our network, and hosting an End of Year Showcase for enhancing public exposure and attention of your work. Winners will be announced in December.
*Deadline and Contact*: The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2026. Send questions to awards@labortechresearchnetwork.org. See below for separate criteria and instructions for the various awards.
Criteria:
Monographs only (no edited volumes or anthologies)
Multiple authors accepted
Published in the last three years (2024-26).
If your book is not out by the deadline for this award, please send proofs from the manuscript and a letter from the press editor confirmation publication before the end of 2026.
Submission details:
Please submit the following items in English to awards@labortechresearchnetwork.org:
An electronic version in PDF format (contact us if only print form is available for books)
The author's contact email address
A one-page nomination letter stating the significance and contribution of the work
Criteria:
Written by students currently enrolled in a graduate program or who have graduated in 2025
Single-authored pieces are preferred, but co-authored pieces will be accepted with the above conditions in Submission Details
If a co-authored piece, *the first author must be a graduate student.*
Papers may be published within the last three years (2024-26) or unpublished
Page length: 25-40 pages, double-spaced
Submission details:
Please submit the following items in English to awards@labortechresearchnetwork.org.
Electronic version in PDF format
The author's email address
A one-page nomination letter stating:
the significance and contribution of the work
when the PhD was started and, if applicable, granted
if the paper was published, then state when and in what journal
if co-authored with faculty/advisors/other PhDs, please include a paragraph attesting to the student's dominant role in generating the paper (such as working on its theoretical components, doing the research, and writing it up). In addition, we ask that the cover letter is signed (digitally, or otherwise) by all co-authors, so that they are aware of this submission.
Criteria:
Those who are interfacing with technology in the course of their organizing, or who are organizing against inequitable technologies, in the context of labor, feminism, anti-racism, transnationalism struggles. This may include:
tech workers
labor organizers, whether in unions or other workers' associations
feminist, immigrant, community, and ethnic rights activists
scholar-activists. For this, we are not looking for purely academic work (i.e., scholars who are studying activism), but rather those who are participating in activism themselves, or who are promoting collaborations between activists and scholars.
people creating design alternatives for social justice, like engineers and designers
Open to individuals, small groups, and if appropriate, organizations
Focus will be on a particular campaign or project that is done with the aim of social justice regarding labor and/or technology. These projects may be broad (such as educating the public on a social justice issue) or specific (such as organizing a protest for higher wages). They may use a variety of strategies (e.g., art, design, social media, marches and strikes, policy interventions, etc.). We'd like to honor activists who, through these projects, have developed novel approaches or who are pioneers in the fight for more equitable relations of technology and/or labor.
Submission details:
Fill out this Google Form: It has a few short questions regarding the significance and contribution of your social justice activities
Answers to this form should be a minimum 400 words each, in order to give us enough understanding of the nominee's accomplishments. No single sentence answers please :) Note: If you’re a busy activist, with little time for filling out applications, feel free to find a willing colleague who can speak to your activities and nominate on your behalf.
Please submit all items in English. However, if you have a submission in another language, contact us and we'll attempt to find a translator in our group.
--
Dr. Karina Ripley (they/them)
Assistant Professor @ University of Virginia
Lead Organizer @ Labor Tech Research Network
@kaareeenah.bsky.social // karina.ripley.com