Matthew Conaty Named 2026 Pacific Telecommunications Council Emerging Scholar
Conaty studies the legal history of science, technology, and the administrative state.
Matthew Conaty, doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named a Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) Emerging Scholar.
Conaty is a legal historian of science, technology, and the administrative state. He researches crisis and disaster communications technology, such as the U.S. Emergency Alert System.
As part of the Emerging Scholar Program, Conaty presented at the 2026 PTC Annual Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. His presentation, “'Neither Operationally Desirable Nor Economically Practical': A Political Economic Analysis of the Emergency Alert System,” examined the history, present, and future of the public warning system, considering the system’s resiliency in an age of climate crisis, nuclear tension, and infrastructural failure.
The PTC Emerging Scholar Program seeks to recognize exceptional, up-and-coming scholars in the field of information and communications technologies.
