Emerging Scholar Awards
The program recognizes both In-Person Emerging Scholars and Online-Only Emerging Scholars, ensuring that researchers unable to travel can still hold a visible and valued role in the conference. Across all formats, Emerging Scholars participate fully in the life of the event: they chair parallel sessions, help guide and sustain discussion, and serve as bridges between established and early-career colleagues from different regions, institutions, and disciplines.
As part of CGScholar’s Event (KX) environment, Emerging Scholars contribute to a wider knowledge experience that links conference activity, community engagement, and publication. Their work is shared through Presentation Pages, digital media, and discussion spaces; they receive structured support to develop their research through the Network’s journals and book imprint; and they gain sustained visibility within the worldwide scholarly community formed around the Research Network.
The Award includes complimentary conference registration and Research Network membership, along with formal recognition during the conference proceedings. Emerging Scholars enter a supportive, scholar-led community in which they can build connections across disciplines, regions, and generations of researchers. Professional development, mentoring encounters, and opportunities for collaboration are integrated into the conference and the Network’s year-round activities.
Award recipients are expected to: attend an orientation and training session (typically the day before the conference), and participate fully throughout the conference by fulfilling assigned chairing and discussion-leading responsibilities.
The Emerging Scholar Award is open to researchers currently enrolled in a graduate studies program or identifying as early-career scholars in a field relevant to the conference. Applicants should demonstrate strong potential for scholarly contribution and a commitment to participating in the collaborative ethos of the Network.
For each conference, a small number of Emerging Scholar Awards are given to outstanding graduate students and emerging scholars who have an active research interest in the conference themes. Emerging Scholars perform a critical role in the online conference by commenting and engaging the parallel sessions, and presenting their own research papers. The 2026 Emerging Scholar Award recipients are as follows:
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dewi Tan is a media artist and researcher with a background in filmmaking, anthropology, and environmental science. Through research-driven art practices, her works tackle sociocultural and environmental issues surrounding modernity, urban development conflicts, waste, consumption culture, anthropogenic disasters, and speculative futures. She is pursuing her Ph.D. at the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore where her research looks at how shopping malls in Singapore participate in climate narratives and ecological discourses.
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
As a media-trained artist with a background in traditional painting, Huiying focuses her research on her artistic practice and professional experiences in animation, education, and painting. Her current and previous roles—including part-time lecturer at a local polytechnic and university, producer at a local advertising and animation studio, and 2D visual effects artist at a Hollywood post-production house—have given her over a decade of industry and teaching experience, which continues to inform her research.
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Ong Kian Peng is a Singapore-based media artist and researcher whose work explores the intersection of art, technology, and ecology, with particular interest in generative systems, immersive media, and more-than-human futures. His practice investigates climate imaginaries, machine agency, and cosmotechnical thought through installation, film, sound, and virtual reality. He has presented and exhibited internationally at SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, the Singapore Biennale, and has been recognised by the Lumen Prize. A recipient of the President’s Young Talent Award, Ong is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
Tilburg University, Netherlands
Pratiksha is a Post Doctoral Researcher at Tilburg University for the EU Horizon 2020 project AI4POL and is affiliated with Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) and Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC). She holds a PhD in consumer protection and data rights on collaborative economy platforms from UC Louvain, Belgium. She was also the legal researcher for the PROSECO Project (Platform Regulations and Operations in the Sharing Economy). She has a double degree in Business Administration and Law and a Masters in Corporate and Commercial Law from India. Her second masters is a Master of Corporate Law, University of Cambridge, UK. She is a qualified lawyer in her home state of Karnataka and the Bar Council of India. Her research interests include digital regulation, data and consumer law, AI and regulation, comparative law, and global studies with perspectives from the Global South.
Receiving the "Emerging Scholar Award" provided a valuable opportunity to enhance my knowledge by engaging in in-depth scientific discussions and sharing research experiences with distinguished academics and experts at a leading international media and communication conference."
This award not only allowed me to showcase my research as a featured presenter but also provided me with the invaluable opportunity to co-moderate themed sessions. This position uniquely enabled me to facilitate meaningful discussions and connections within the academic community. I am grateful for the platform this award has provided to share my work and engage with fellow scholars in the field."
As an Emerging Scholar I got a behind-the-scenes peek at the conference and got to reflect deeply on innovative conference session formats. I bonded with an amazing group of scholars who shared their own insights, tips, and scholarship. The conference has inspired and encouraged my own research in so many ways!