{"id":156996,"date":"2022-04-27T13:52:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T17:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/?p=156996"},"modified":"2022-04-27T13:52:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T17:52:59","slug":"phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD Alum Scott Sikes&#8217; Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-156997\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At the core of Scott Sikes\u2019 work, both research and professional, is observing and analyzing what people can do when they work together to make their communities and the world a better place. His dissertation, <em>In Our Very Blood: The Use of Social media in the 2018 West Virginia Teachers Strike, <\/em>follows that same thread. It was awarded the 2022 College of Communication and Information Outstanding Dissertation Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy dissertation was ostensibly about the labor movement, the use of information, and an event of collective action around a labor strike. It\u2019s about the larger questions of how we live in the world and are members of the community together, and that\u2019s the overarching theme of this undergraduate program I\u2019m involved in,\u201d said Sikes, referring to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ehc.edu\/appalachian-center-for-civic-life\/\">Appalachian Center for Civic Life program at Emory &amp; Henry College<\/a>, of which he is now the director. \u201cIt\u2019s very interdisciplinary and asks students to tap into their own knowledge and experiences in the world, and think about how we can all be better citizens, and the dissertation asked those kind of questions, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The dissertation is available through the University of Tennessee, Knoxville\u2019s Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange (TRACE) site, <a href=\"https:\/\/trace.tennessee.edu\/utk_graddiss\/6689\/\">and can be downloaded here<\/a>. Sikes is also contracted to take his dissertation and turn it into a book, which will take a more interdisciplinary view by including historical and sociological aspects of the West Virginia Teachers Strike. He said he wouldn\u2019t have been able to accomplish what he did without the assistance of his doctoral committee as well as CCI staff members who support the PhD program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCertainly I want to thank the members of my committee who were so utterly invaluable, but also everybody there in CCI, particularly Margaret Taylor. All of those folks who just kind of do that hard day-to-day work in keeping things going, they helped me so much and were equally valuable and important to me and I\u2019m just deeply appreciative of everybody there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While he will be broadening aspects of his research, both for the book and as he pursues research as tenured faculty, Sikes said one of the reasons he chose the doctoral program at CCI is because it was interdisciplinary and didn\u2019t narrow his options to solely information sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of the great things about CCI is that, all through that program, I was able to take classes and have conversations with people in all of those disciplines and programs and it was just so helpful to me to encounter different perspectives in terms of theory and research,\u201d he said. \u201cIn encountering all those people, I know the quality of work of my colleagues, and to think mine is being recognized amongst all that work\u2014I\u2019m very proud of that and humbled by it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sikes was already an instructor at Emory &amp; Henry College before he defended his dissertation, but once his doctoral program was complete, he officially moved into the role as a tenure-track assistant professor and director of the Appalachian Center for Civic Life. This, he said, is a perfect pairing for many reasons: he is an undergraduate alumnus of the college and participated in the program at the center, and he greatly appreciates and deploys interdisciplinary approaches and the center, which is also how many of the center\u2019s programs are structured. The center promotes community organization and leadership, so it isn\u2019t difficult to see the impact it made on Sikes as he moved forward in his academic career and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sikes said he feels the importance of his dissertation and research work is not just in its specific context of how information technology is used for collective efforts, but also in pushing the boundaries of information sciences. The interdisciplinary nature of CCI\u2019s doctoral program helped him to see that sometimes limitations are put on information sciences, and he hopes graduate students continue to push like he did, both in their research and in the professional field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf anything is central to our social world it is information. It\u2019s central to who we are as human beings and how we exist in the world. It can be far more multi-disciplinary and be more creative in terms of the ways it examines the use of information in our social world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the core of Scott Sikes\u2019 work, both research and professional, is observing and analyzing what people can do when they work together to make their communities and the world a better place. His dissertation, In Our Very Blood: The Use of Social media in the 2018 West Virginia Teachers Strike, follows that same thread. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PhD Alum Scott Sikes&#039; Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award - School of Information Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PhD Alum Scott Sikes&#039; Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award - School of Information Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the core of Scott Sikes\u2019 work, both research and professional, is observing and analyzing what people can do when they work together to make their communities and the world a better place. His dissertation, In Our Very Blood: The Use of Social media in the 2018 West Virginia Teachers Strike, follows that same thread. [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"School of Information Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-27T17:52:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hillary Tune\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hillary Tune\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hillary Tune\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/569f000aca9fa12bba5f8ab96c17d08e\"},\"headline\":\"PhD Alum Scott Sikes&#8217; Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-27T17:52:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":732,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sis.utk.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Announcements\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/\",\"name\":\"PhD Alum Scott Sikes' Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award - School of Information Sciences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sis.utk.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-27T17:52:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/569f000aca9fa12bba5f8ab96c17d08e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sis.utk.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sis.utk.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/2022\\\/04\\\/27\\\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PhD Alum Scott Sikes&#8217; Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/\",\"name\":\"School of Information Sciences\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/569f000aca9fa12bba5f8ab96c17d08e\",\"name\":\"Hillary Tune\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cci.utk.edu\\\/sis\\\/author\\\/htune1\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PhD Alum Scott Sikes' Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award - School of Information Sciences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PhD Alum Scott Sikes' Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award - School of Information Sciences","og_description":"At the core of Scott Sikes\u2019 work, both research and professional, is observing and analyzing what people can do when they work together to make their communities and the world a better place. His dissertation, In Our Very Blood: The Use of Social media in the 2018 West Virginia Teachers Strike, follows that same thread. [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/","og_site_name":"School of Information Sciences","article_published_time":"2022-04-27T17:52:59+00:00","author":"Hillary Tune","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hillary Tune","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/"},"author":{"name":"Hillary Tune","@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/#\/schema\/person\/569f000aca9fa12bba5f8ab96c17d08e"},"headline":"PhD Alum Scott Sikes&#8217; Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award","datePublished":"2022-04-27T17:52:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/"},"wordCount":732,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg","articleSection":["Announcements"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/","url":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/","name":"PhD Alum Scott Sikes' Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award - School of Information Sciences","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-27T17:52:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/#\/schema\/person\/569f000aca9fa12bba5f8ab96c17d08e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/web_Scott-Sikes-267x400.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2022\/04\/27\/phd-alum-scott-sikes-earns-2022-cci-outstanding-dissertation-award\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PhD Alum Scott Sikes&#8217; Earns 2022 CCI Outstanding Dissertation Award"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/","name":"School of Information Sciences","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/#\/schema\/person\/569f000aca9fa12bba5f8ab96c17d08e","name":"Hillary Tune","url":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/author\/htune1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}