April Tyack’s Distinguished Scholars

The April Tyack’s DiGRAA Distinguished Scholars are named in honour of DiGRAA’s former Vice President Dr April Tyack, who made our community better.

Since DiGRAA’s founding in 2014, we have strived to be the most welcoming and supportive research community possible. The contributions made by core community members like Dr April Tyack exemplify this. Dr April Tyack served as DiGRAA’s Vice President from 2018 to 2021 and epitomised the type of dedication to academic discourse and community-building efforts focused on improving diversity and inclusivity in games studies, which we strive to uphold as a group. Though Dr April Tyack’s bright academic career was far too short, her impact will be felt for many years to come. 

The April Tyack’s Distinguished Scholar Award formally recognises the indispensable but often invisible advocacy and mentorship that defines DiGRAA—the work that makes, sustains, and grows our community. It is awarded to a community member whose ongoing support has helped cultivate our local game studies field and its scholars. The award is not a measure of research output or teaching achievement. It honours sustained and impactful contributions to our Australian and New Zealand game studies community.

April Tyack’s DiGRAA Distinguished Scholars

Distinguished Scholars are presented with an engraved plaque bearing a duck image chosen to represent Dr Tyack’s beloved signature duck backpack.

Award criteria

Award winners are celebrated for their achievements and impact against three criteria.

1. Advocacy

The awardee has actively championed game studies, the association, or individuals within the community—whether through formal or informal means, and whether within or beyond the association.

2. Mentorship

The awardee has provided sustained, meaningful support to emerging scholars and community members, helping to develop the next generation of local game studies researchers.

3. Making our community better

The awardee has contributed to making the association’s community stronger, more connected, more inclusive, or more vibrant, in ways that benefit the community as a whole.

Nominations

Access the nomination form here.

Any current member of DiGRAA may nominate a candidate. The process is blind, meaning that nominees are not informed they are under consideration for the award.

Nominees are evaluated against three criteria: Advocacy, Mentorship and Making our community better. As a nominator you are not required to address all three – you are simply encouraged to write in detail about whatever criteria you have direct personal experience of.

Nominations are received on a rolling basis and submissions accumulate into an ongoing portfolio for nominees. This means that every submission counts, because each nominee’s portfolio builds over time and each submission contributes to a growing picture of the nominee.

Nominations can be made for current DiGRAA Board members, but these portfolios are ineligible for consideration or award while the nominee is a member of the DiGRAA Board.

Award Committee

The Award Committee comprises between five and seven members, is reconstituted annually, and involves:

• Three DiGRAA Board members, elected by the Board annually
• One or two prior award recipients, selected annually
• One or two at-large members, drawn annually from the wider DiGRAA membership

In recruiting for the committee, the Chair is required to strive to gather a diverse range of voices and perspectives representing different career stages and roles across the DiGRAA community.

Complaint Procedures

Ultimately, the Distinguished Scholars are named in the spirit of Dr April Tyack; those who we believe do not embody this spirit—or Dr April Tyack would not wish to recognise—are not eligible for the award, even if their contributions are significant.

If you believe an awarded or nominated Distinguished Scholar does not represent Dr April Tyack’s legacy, you can submit your concern to the current DiGRAA President for review.

About Dr April Tyack

Please see Dan Golding’s thoughtful obituary ‘In Memory of April Tyack’ to learn more about Dr April Tyack’s legacy.