FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- June 12, 2015 Contact: Dr. Mark D. Johns, Executive Director Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research c/o Department of Communication Studies, Luther College Decorah, Iowa 52101 USA Tel: (563) 387-1347 email: mjohns@luther.edu Robinson wins of 2015 James Carey Award IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Hilary C. Robinson, a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and formerly Assistant Professor at the Vermont Law School, is the winner of the 2015 James W. Carey Media Research Award competition sponsored by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research (www.cccsir.com). Robinson is author of a paper, Shifted Personhood: Technology, Organizations, and Law on the Path to Citizens United, to be published later this year in the journal, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change. The Carey Award, established in 2004, is presented annually from among nominated or submitted books or journal articles accepted for publication in the previous year. The award honors the late Dr. James W. Carey (1934-2006). Dr. Carey was recognized as one of the North American pioneers in applying cultural approaches to the study of media technologies. To be worthy of the award, the work must be of highest quality and employ Carey's theories to focus on communication and public life, journalism, or popular culture. The winning entry this year was chosen from an exceptionally strong field of works submitted by a long list of outstanding scholars. The article examines how the legal regulation of technology shapes social order and provides a model for explaining technology-influenced legal change. Bringing forward legal aspects of the study of organizations from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, it seeks to explain how personhood has “shifted” between organizations and individuals in the constitutional order, bringing their rights into conflict in new ways. The paper is available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2409717 A member of the review committee commented, "I found Robinson's piece to be an artful and intellectually exciting blend of Carey's great themes." The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research is a non-profit organization established to promote the scholarship of the late Carl J. Couch and his academic associates. Couch is recognized as the founder of The New Iowa School in sociological and communication inquiry, and was a pioneer in the qualitative research of information technologies. The Center provides networking opportunities for students and scholars who conduct social and Internet research, inspired by Couch's work. - 30 -