42nd Annual AJHA Convention
Columbus, Ohio  |   Sept.  28-30, 2023

Convention contacts

Convention Coordinator
Caryl Cooper
University of Alabama

Registration Coordinator

Patti Piburn

California Polytechnic State University


Program Coordinator

Debra van Tuyll

Augusta State (emerita)

Convention hosts

Aimee Edmondson

Ohio University


Felecia Ross

Ohio State University


Conference Sponsors

Ohio State University

School of Communication


Ohio University

E.W. Scripps School of Journalism




Conference Program 


Full Program 


Questions about the program should be directed to 2nd Vice President Debra van Tuyll


Go to: Thursday morning | Thursday afternoon | Friday | Saturday 

Wednesday, September 27

1:30 p.m. Board of Directors meeting, Hartman Parlor

2 - 6 p.m. Conference Registration, Deshler Parlor

6 p.m. American Journalism Editorial Advisory Board meeting, Deshler Parlor

Thursday, September 28

7:30-8:30: Breakfast buffet in Grand Ballroom 

8 a.m. to Noon: Conference Registration, Deshler Parlor

8:30-9:30 a.m. Welcome and President’s Address, Grand Ballroom 

Mike Conway, Indiana University, AJHA President 2022-2023 

“Influencing the Future by Interrogating the Past” 

9-10 a.m. Coffee and Hot Tea Service, Grand Ballroom Promenade

9:40-10:40 a.m. Your Choice of Two Simultaneous Sessions

Paper Session: Civil War Era Conspiracies and Narratives, Chittenden Parlor 


Moderator: David Bulla, Augusta University 


Presenters: 

LOCAL PANEL: Ohio: A Haven for Presidential Beginnings, Thurber Conference

Moderator: Felecia Ross, Ohio State University 

Panelists:

  • Jenny Robb, Head Curator of Comics and Cartoon Art, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum 
  • Margaret Sumner, Ohio State University 
  • Christopher McKnight Nichols, Ohio State University 

Ohio has long been a bellwether for presidential elections. A popular saying is, “As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.” Ohio is either the political home or birthplace of eight presidents. Panelists will share how these presidents shaped the development of the nation as well as how they contributed to Ohio’s role in shaping presidential politics. Panelists will also discuss how their tenure coincided with the development and evolution of the press.


10:50-11:50 p.m.  Your Choice of Two Simultaneous Sessions


PAPER SESSION: Labor Coverage and Concerns, Chittenden Parlor 

Moderator: Bailey Dick, Bowling Green State University

Presenters:

PANEL DISCUSSION: Happily Ever After: Advice for Journalism Historians on Working with Book Editors and Publishers, Thurber Conference

Moderator: Jon Marshall, Northwestern University

  • Wayne Dawkins, Morgan State University
  • Brooke Kroeger, New York University, emerita
  • Pam Parry, Southeastern Missouri State University

Getting a book manuscript published takes many steps, some of which can be difficult to navigate. Authors must work with editors and other publishing staff to go through the peer review process, agree on contracts, finalize manuscripts, review page proofs, complete indexes, select covers, and gain positive publicity. This panel of book authors and a book series editor will share advice on what questions to ask editors and publishers, how to work with them in the most productive way, and what mistakes to avoid. The panel will include plenty of time for questions and conversation with the audience. 

    12-1:30 p.m.   Sidney Kobre and Teaching Awards Luncheon

    2-5 p.m.: Conference Registration, Deshler Parlor

    1:40-2:40 p.m. Your Choice of Two Simultaneous Sessions

     

    PAPER SESSION: Women in the Kitchen and in History, Thurber Conference


    Moderator: Jason Peterson, Charleston Southern University


    Presenters:

    PANEL DISCUSSION: Black Power to Woke: The Historical Evolution of Black Racial Consciousness in Black Media, Chittenden Parlor 

    Moderator: Earnest Perry, University of Missouri

    Panelists:

    • Rachel Grant, University of Florida
    • Cristina Mislán, University of Missouri
    • Gheni Platenburg, University of Houston
    • Lisa Lenoir, Indiana University

    The historical Black press has served as the mouthpiece for racial consciousness and empowerment, but more recently Black-created media content has also bridged that gap between mainstream and advocacy media. The recent mainstream media coverage of “culture wars on woke” influences political, economic, and social dissent against Black/Brown individuals and other marginalized identities. In the post-Trump racial reckoning, local and state-wide policies have attacked the teaching of Black history and erased diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts in an attempt to reduce social change and diminish the systemic oppression still plaguing society’s most disenfranchised communities. While the backlash on racial consciousness and progress isn’t new, this panel will trace how the Black press/media has shaped social movements, such as Black Power and Black Lives Matter, through language, imagery, and advocacy to gain mainstream momentum and resistance.

    2:30-4:30 p.m. Coffee and Hot Tea Service, Grand Ballroom Promenade


    2:50-3:50 p.m. Your Choice of Two Simultaneous Sessions

     

    PAPER SESSION: Race and the Arts, Sports, and Violence, Thurber Conference


    Moderator: Wayne Dawkins, Morgan State University 


    Presenters:

    PANEL DISCUSSION: From Talk to Action: Making Journalism History More Inclusive, Chittenden Parlor

    Moderator: Tracy Lucht, Iowa State University

    Panelists:

    • Melita Garza, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
    • Michael Fuhlhage, Wayne State University
    • Bailey Dick, Bowling Green State University
    • Melissa Greene-Blye, University of Kansas

    Recognizing the need for inclusivity is one thing; achieving it is another. This panel of scholars—all of them editors and/or contributors to the recent Routledge Companion to Journalism History—revisits a longstanding problem: the need to reimagine journalism history across forms, formats, and voices while making the field more welcoming and equitable. The speakers will offer new ways of looking at media history—its standards, methods, theories, and practices—with the goal of expanding the narrative, correcting the record, and elevating underrepresented voices and experiences.

    4-5:15 p.m. PAPER SESSION: International/Transnational Conflicts and Coverage, Thurber Conference

    Moderator: Cristina Mislán, University of Missouri 

               

    Presenters:

      5:30-7:30 p.m. AJHA Awards ReceptionGrand Ballroom 

      Hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, cash bar. Included with registration


      Friday, September 29

      7:30-8:45: Breakfast buffet in Grand Ballroom 

      8 a.m. to 11:30: Conference Registration, Deshler Parlor

      9-10 a.m. Coffee and Hot Tea Service, Grand Ballroom Promenade

      8:30-10 a.m. Your Choice of Two Simultaneous Sessions


      PANEL DISCUSSION: President’s Panel: Who's Afraid of Inclusive History, Chittenden Parlor


      Moderator: Mike Conway, AJHA President, Indiana University


      Panelists:

      • D’Weston Haywood, Hunter College 
      • George Daniels, University of Alabama 
      • Yong Volz, University of Missouri 

      On one hand, universities are cutting history departments and other humanities because of a perceived lack of interest. At the same time, people in power are pushing laws limiting what can be taught in history courses. As scholars and teachers push for a more inclusive history, why are we now seeing such a backlash to a more honest understanding of our past? What happens when students learn a more inclusive history? Conversely, how does society change when it is shielded from difficult or unpleasant truths? As historians and educators, how do we respond? 

      RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: War, Propaganda, and Freedom, Thurber Conference

      Moderator: Elisabeth Fondren, St.John’s University 

      Presenters:

      • A.J. Bauer, Alabama, “The Rightward Drift of Structural Press Criticism in the United States”
      • Charles Sorrie, Lycée Français de San Francisco, “The Limitations of Liberty: Censorship of the Press in France, 1917-1918” 
      • Louis Reed-Wood, Toronto, “‘Read—Discuss—Diffuse’: Partisanship and Nationalism in the Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge’s Propaganda, 1863–64” 
      • Keith Greenwood, Missouri, “Photojournalism of the Vietnam War in Stars and Stripes, 1964-1972” 
      • Madeleine Liseblad, Cal State Long Beach, “ ‘I Was Very Lucky:’ Four American War Correspondents and the Battle of Leyte” 
      • Rob Rabe, Marshall, “ ‘Half Out of Our Tree:’ The New Yorker Magazine and the Vietnam War” 
      • Felecia Ross, Ohio State, “ ‘Devotion’ to Korean War Valor: Black and Mainstream Press Coverage of Ensign Jesse L. Brown and Lt. Thomas Hudner” 
      • Natascha Toft Roelsgaard, Muskingum, " 'An Unjust Southern Method': The White Press, the Draft, and the Exploitation of Black Women in the American South during WWI"
      • Christopher Wilson, Brigham Young; Tyler G. Page, Connecticut; Ed Adams, Brigham Young, “The Evangelical Communication Tactics that Influenced Public Relations among the 18th and 19th Century Social Movements”

      10:10-11:25 a.m.  Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Prize, Chittenden Parlor

      Winner: Molly Thacker, Georgetown University under the direction of Katherine Benton-Cohen, for “‘Are We Not Children, Too?’: Race, Media, and the Formative History of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children in the United States.”

      Honorable mentions: 

      • Autumn Lorimer Linford, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, “Extra! The History of America’s Girl Newsies” 
      • Natascha Toft Roelsgaard, Ohio University, “'The Offense of Blackness’: Race Women’s Counter Storytelling and Exposé of the Southern Convict Leasing Regime” 
      • Ashley Walter, Pennsylvania State University, “‘We Didn’t Do It, and We Won’t Do It Again’: Class-Action Sex Discrimination Lawsuits at News Organizations in the 1970s” 

      11:35 am-12:40 p.m. Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon

      1-4 p.m.  Historic Tour of Ohio History Center.

      Meet in hotel lobby at 1 p.m.

      Saturday, September 30

      7-8:10: Breakfast buffet in Grand Ballroom 

      9-10 a.m. Coffee and Hot Tea Service, Grand Ballroom Promenade

      8:10-10 a.m. Your Choice of Two Simultaneous Research in Progress Sessions

                 

      Representations in the MediaChittenden Parlor


      Moderator: Paulette Kilmer, University of Toledo


      Presenters:

      • Ashley Walter, St. Louis University, and Stephanie Davis Kempton, Pennsylvania State University, “Motherhood and Journalism”
      • Ross Collins, North Dakota State, “Consumptive Journalism: Publications by Tuberculosis Patients in Sanatoriums, 1925-1950”
      • Teri Finneman, Kansas, “Frenzy over Frances: How Press Coverage of America’s Youngest First Lady (Frustrated/Furthered) Feminism”
      • Eric Boll, Ohio (grad student), “Depictions of Paleontology in Two Major American Newspapers in the 1990s”
      • Daniel Marshall Haygood, Elon, “Atlantic Refining Company: An Early Leadership Brand in Sponsoring Sports Broadcasting”
      • Melissa Greene-Blye, Kansas, “A Wreath of Cherokee Rose Buds: Native Women Make Their Mark via Magazine Writing” 
      • Adam Silvia, Library of Congress, “A Guide to Photojournalism Research at the Library of Congress”
      • Christopher Cimaglio, Denison, “Samuel Lubell and 1950s-1970s U.S. Political Journalism”
      • Amber Roessner, Tennessee-Knoxville, “Under Construction: Mediated Images of Jimmy Carter and His Evolving Presidential Legacy”


      Coverage of Change and Conflict, Thurber Conference


      Moderator: Ford Risley, Pennsylvania State University


      Presenters: 

      • Claire Rounkles, Missouri, “Showing Violence to The Nation: Violence Against the Press During the Civil Rights Movement from 1950 -1970”
      • Suzannah Evans Comfort, Indiana “When Is the Environment Newsworthy? Making Space for the Beat in Three American Newspapers”
      • Hannah Roth Cooley, Toronto, “The First Line of Defense’: Indigenous Journalism Organizations, Advocacy, and Anti-Colonial Solidarity Building”
      • Tate Williams, Southern Mississippi, and David R. Davies, Southern Mississippi, “‘A Gruesome End for the Machine-gunning Duo’: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow as Criminal Celebrities”
      • Alan G. Stavitsky, Nevada-Reno, “The Origins of Radio Broadcasting in Nevada”
      • Betsy Edgerton, Columbia College Chicago, “Risk-takers and Hell-raisers: Six Women Journalists Whose Life Writing Helped Society Change”
      • George Daniels, University of Alabama, “Using the HistoryMakers Digital Archive and the Lincoln Journalism Newsletter to Tell the Story of 1940s and ’50s Black Journalists”
      • Christie Kleinmann, Belmont, “The Antis: Publicity Strategies of the Tennessee Anti-Suffrage Movement”
      • Michael Fuhlhage, Wayne State, and Lee R. Wilkins, Missouri emerita, “How Newspapers Come to Grips with Their Historical Roles in Systemic Racism”
      • Elisabeth Fondren, St. John’s, and Erin Coyle, Temple, “‘The Freedom to Propagandize?’: First Amendment Values, Press Discourse and Journalists’ Undercover Exposure of Fascist Groups (1937-1942)”

      10:10-11:40 a.m. General Business Meeting, Grand Ballroom

      • Approval of 2022 Minutes 
      • Constitution and Bylaws amendments 
      • Officer and committee reports 
      • Awards for Rising Scholar and American Journalism best article
      • Presentation of research and service awards 
      • Presidential succession 
      • The gavel will be turned over to Tracy Lucht, Iowa State, AJHA president for 2023- 2024 

      11:50-1:20 p.m. Working Lunch (Officers/Board), Hartman Parlor

      1:30-2:30 p.m. Book of the Year Award, Chittenden Parlor

      Moderator: Jane Marcellus

      Winner: James West, "A House for the Struggle: The Black Press and the Built Environment in Chicago." 

      Honorable mention: 

      • David Goodman and Joy Elizabeth Hayes, New Deal Radio: The Educational Radio Projec
      • Jon Marshall, “Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis
      • Kathryn J. McGarr, "City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington"

      2:40-3:40 p.m. Your Choice of Two Simultaneous Sessions

      PAPER SESSION: Diplomacy and Diversity, Chittenden Parlor

      Moderator: Yong Volz, University of Missouri

      Presenters:

      PANEL DISCUSSION: Covering and Violating Civil Rights in the Mid-Twentieth Century:
      Reconsidering Journalism Standards, Thurber Conference

      Moderator: Raja Das, Ohio University

      Panelists:

      • Erin Coyle, Temple University
      • Aimee Edmondson, Ohio University
      • Gwyneth Mellinger, James Madison University

      During the mid-Twentieth Century, members of the U.S. press reconsidered their professional roles amid calls to leave behind their World War II-era promotion of the United States, its allies, and its propaganda to provide more independent and socially responsible news coverage. This shift aligned with the postwar surge in the movement for Black civil rights, which intensified reporting on race in the 1950s and 1960s. The courts, as venues for historic contests over racialized power, produced newsworthy criminal trials and civil litigation that captivated audiences and framed the national narrative about civil rights. Although the white press reported on court proceedings and legal inequity, it also missed opportunities to expand understanding of racism and its effects, sometimes violating the civil rights of those it covered. Drawing upon primary sources, panelists will revisit significant court coverage from this period and will discuss what news coverage and archived correspondence reveal about journalists’ rationales for how they reported on pivotal criminal cases, libel suits, and contempt of court cases involving members of the press during the civil rights movement. Panelists will discuss what these high-profile civil-rights related cases reveal about journalism standards in the mid-Twentieth Century. The panel will invite audience members to discuss implications for journalism history from panelists’ findings about coverage of these civil-rights related cases and journalistic conduct during the mid-Twentieth Century.

      3:50-4:50 p.m. PANEL DISCUSSION

      PANEL DISCUSSION: Meet the Microgrant Winners of the American Journalism/Journalism History Initiative, Thurber Conference

      Moderator: Pamela E. Walck, Editor, American Journalism

      Panelists:

      • Robby Byrd, University of Memphis
      • Jeremy J. Chatelain, religious educator
      • Sydney Dillard, DePaul University
      • Lisa D. Lenoir, Indiana University Bloomington 
      • Michael T. Martínez, University of Tennessee
      • Wendy Melillo, American University

        6 p.m. Gala Dinner, Sidebar Columbus

        Meet in the hotel lobby by 5:40 p.m., separate ticket required.



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