How did you become involved with AJHA?
I was David Sloan's student at University of Alabama starting way back in 1989. I went into grad school without a clue what grad school was. But I saw a media history course on the schedule and JUMPED on it. I had been a history (and English) major at Principia College and had spent the 1980s as a journalist, so it was obvious that Media History was meant for me! David was my media history professor, and what a fortunate, fortunate situation for me—and for all of David's students.
He had a vision for bringing students along and furthering their careers in academia. Most notably, he didn't make us rewrite our papers in his voice; he exercised a light hand as an editor. He insisted on us submitting to conferences, and he showed us how to do it—he really guided us through the process. In some cases, he asked students to write book chapters. He even asked me to co-write a book, and then in another class, our entire class wrote a book.
I came out of my master's degree and subsequent PhD as a veteran, almost, and of course by then I was part of AJHA, having completely dived into the deep end there. David made sure we students submitted to AJHA, as he was one of the co-founders of our organization.
You have a regular speaking schedule and put on PowerPoint shows. How do those events differ from traditional research presentations? How have those shifted the way you present research in other settings?
I've written four popular history books, which is a childhood dream come true. These are the ones I present to audiences via PowerPoint—but not just PowerPoint. One format is a sort of interactive storytelling, where I recruit members of the audience to act out stories; another is a scripted one-woman show; three others are PowerPoint shows, although I take great pains to make them entertaining. In one PowerPoint show, for example, I trick the audience into failing a quiz about the Wright Brothers, and by the time the show is over, they pass the quiz when asked again. Don't I wish it would be that easy with my students!
These presentations differ from research presentations by length—I generally speak 45 minutes to 55 minutes as the entertainment for the group who asked me to speak. I get bent out of shape when a group that meets over lunch wants a shorter speech... that's very hard for me. These presentations also differ by audience—I speak mostly to non-academic audiences at public libraries, garden clubs, historical societies, and the like.... I do also like making academic presentations a little entertaining, maybe drawing a laugh or a sort of gasp, maybe.
Of course, those little sparks have to match the topic. For example, I was presenting an academic presentation on the settlement literature that brought colonists to America to start with. One of the prime writers of this over-the-top PR was John Smith, the one associated with Pocahontas. So when I quoted John Smith's work in my AJHA presentation, I whipped out an action figure of John Smith from the movie Pocahontas and quipped, "...and we think of him as just a movie star." I remember he fit nicely into the empty microphone holder on the podium.
You’ve described your writing style as having “the breezy storytelling quality of fiction, of course while staying true to history,” how did you settle on using that style?
I think I can call back the answer from my days as a general assignment reporter on The Sampson Independent, a small daily newspaper in the farm country of North Carolina. The Independent is based in the happenin' town of Clinton, which in my day had about 7,000 residents—yet it was a big city and had a daily newspaper. That tells you something about the rural nature of the area.
I decided early on that my writing shouldn't be done in a dry and "just-the-facts" Dragnet style; it should be interesting to read. My thought was that many of my readers probably read only the paper, so they should be reading something fun to read. Fortunately, I had lots of chances to write in an entertaining way, as I was given a column once a week (always fun to write!) and often wrote the Sunday Feature Page on more lighthearted topics. Then there were the usual features. Of course, we had some hard news, and I did write that seriously.
In every case, these things were written based on facts—OK, sometimes the column got fanciful. But otherwise, I was writing the facts—but interestingly. To me, truth is more interesting than fiction anyway; I get quite impatient with most novels because they aren't true. So writing the truth in a readable way became my goal. I easily transferred that goal to historical research and writing, since I have always read history for fun, anyway. Since journalism and history are definitely related, I think both should be entertaining and readable, while also being true.
What is one piece of advice or lesson you have from your recent research or teaching?
My advice is pedagogical for any of us who feel like they're losing the battle of educating our students. Every year about this time (I'm writing this at the end of the fall semester), I quote Miss Shields from the movie A Christmas Story as she (and I) grade papers: "F! F! My life's work down the drain!"
Sometimes I get very discouraged that "no one" among my students (as it seems momentarily) applied their lessons. This year the issue was naturalness—my freshman English students are actually writing short media history papers, and I know their findings and analysis should be interesting... but this year they seemed to fall down before attaining that natural sound that everyone wants to read. They tended to sound stilted and panicky to fit into a mold. I told my husband that my lesson learned this year was to retire! ... But NO!
I've come to realize that we professors and teachers are the nerds who followed the rules when we were students, got brave enough to apply the spirit as well as the rules, who stayed up late researching and writing and worrying about grades. My students who made me become Miss Shields this semester are, simply, the ones destined for careers other than mine.
An example: During our final exam this year, three of my students who happen to be nursing majors took charge when a fellow student had a medical emergency. One of those take-charge nurses was a real struggler in my class. But wow, what a great nurse that student will make! That's part of it—we're all heading to where we need to be. I remind myself that I can only launch them into their sophomore year with my fingers crossed that they'll get their feet under them and come to the realization that writing isn't a series of rules, but a natural telling of what you know. And I admit a good number of my students did break through this semester (despite Miss Shields' lament) and wrote some readable research that was fun to hear about.
So my advice is: Don't be discouraged. We all feel like Miss Shields sometimes, but when you pull out of that nosedive, you'll see that some of the students' work is very interesting indeed.
What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?
Gosh, is there any time outside of academia? Actually, I swim all summer and have just taken up swimming in the school year, too, when I can. I love traveling to see our grown sons, one in Chicago and one in Los Angeles (I'm in Birmingham, Alabama)—and I love traveling to the ocean and swimming in it. It's also a great and relaxing challenge for me to shop with a laser focus for bargains, my goal being to be able to get gifts for my large childhood family on the cheap. My husband accuses me and my sisters of bragging about how little we spent whenever we give a gift, and I think he's right! But it's so much fun to find those bargains!
Julie Hedgepeth Williams teaches part-time at Samford University, where she's delighted that her freshman English class can be taught as media history. She's also a part-time writer of popular history books which all started as AJHA papers. She won AJHA's Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History in 2021.