Dr. Jessica Pater’s winning dissertation is titled Digital Self-Harm: Implications of Eating Disordered Behaviors Online. Here is what the Committee had to say:
"The thesis addressed a significant and highly sensitive social problem, taking an intellectually rigorous approach that has widespread potential impact.
Reviewers commented that the thesis demonstrates careful scholarship, with a “clear engagement with previous literature” and a “systematic review, with excellent synthesis”. The method is highlighted as including “not one, but a set of case studies” that thoroughly develop and test the thesis’ hypothesis in a robust process.
The panel also noted that the research presented has value for the wider information science community now, and in the future: “there is a clear case that the thesis confirms, but also alters much of our existing theories on social impacts of information”, and “the ideas created and presented transcend the topic studied”.
Most importantly, the social applicability and benefit of the research are tangible, presenting a “compelling case” for both the research and the problem it addresses. Overall the thesis, in the words of one reviewer “is a clear example case for the vital value of information science for the global community”.