Incoming Ph.D. student (and Georgia Tech bachelor’s and master’s graduate) Casey Fiesler has received a 2009 Burton Award for an article she published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law.

Modeled after the Pulitzer Prizes, the Burton Awards for Legal Achievement began in 1999 as a way to honor the best writing in the legal profession. Fiesler, who earned her M.S. in the human-computer interaction program and whose doctoral work will be in human-centered computing, wrote “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Fandom: How Existing Social Norms Can Help Shape the Next Generation of User-Generated Content” while in law school at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. She received her Burton Award at a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington on June 15, a month after she picked up her law degree from Vanderbilt.

“My writing draws on an eclectic mix of education, passion and perspective--plus the breadth of my considerable reading,” Fiesler said. “It's heartening to see that the legal community responding to the voice I've developed, and I'm grateful to be honored with this award."