How did you become involved with AJHA?

The 2007 Joint Journalism Historians Conference in New York City (held that year at NYU’s refurbished Kimball Hall on Greene Street) was one of the first conferences I attended after starting my faculty position at Slippery Rock University (SRU). I was still completing my dissertation and trying to balance a four-course teaching load with three young children, so a one-day conference within driving distance seemed to be just the ticket.

Little did I know that the conference would be a turning point. While I had been an “outlier” in my graduate program by studying historical media as narrative, at AJHA and the Joint AJHA-AEJMC History Division conferences, I found researchers who shared similar interests and research. They provided meaningful feedback and encouragement just when I needed it.

Presentations at the joint conference also led to other opportunities. For example, a number of AJHA attendees encouraged me to also present at the Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War and Free Expression in Chattanooga—another supportive forum for collaboration, generating ideas, and finding inspiration.

Finally, in 2024, Dr. Pamela Walck of Duquesne University invited me to join her on the local planning committee for the AJHA convention in Pittsburgh. It was great to see many newer faculty in attendance and to feel like my participation had come full circle.

How does your industry experience in public affairs with the USDA Food & Nutrition Service inform your teaching?

I had a fantastic eight years working with the USDA Food & Nutrition Service, the agency that administers the nation’s domestic food assistance programs like food stamps and school meals. The agency is a heavy-hitter, serving one in four Americans each year with an annual budget of more than $160 billion—the largest single agency within the USDA.

Little of that money was at the disposal of the public affairs staff, however, and we “did it all.” Like the table of contents in a PR textbook, my role included media relations; collaborative programming with corporate, nonprofit, congressional and governmental entities; advertising and publications; communication around policy and programming initiatives; advance work for political appointees; issues management; and a focus on diverse populations. It taught me that one must be nimble, creative, and collaborative, and that textbook scenarios of PR campaigns with “a year to plan” and a “million-dollar budget” are not always what you find in the “real world.”

Although that experience has helped me immensely in preparing students, it was sobering to realize that my career with USDA came to a close before they were even born. We worked in a now-unfamiliar pre-website, pre-social-media, pre-digital-cameras world.

To update my skills, I completed two projects during a sabbatical this past year. The first project took me into the newsroom of the Butler Eagle in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I worked several days a week on reporting, editing, design and photo management for print and digital editions.

A second sabbatical project included collaboration with my former colleagues at the USDA and PR work with an environmental action group, Groundwork USA. I also connected with policy and programming figures at the state and federal level to learn more about the state of legislative affairs and policy action.

You advise a student organization, College Dress Relief (CDR), at Slippery Rock that helps students prepare for careers in social media communication and marketing. What are some tips or resources you can share with others who help students enter an industry that continually shifts and adapts to digital trends and technology?

My suggestion is to find topics that motivate students and let them “run with it.” I’m not particularly knowledgeable about fashion, for example, but, like sports and entertainment, it’s one of the topics that generates excitement and productivity. There’s also room in this type of organization for many types of students, from PR and integrated marketing to digital media and journalism—and even dance, English, and art majors.

CDR members put their classroom skills into action by writing fashion-oriented blogs, taking photos and videos, writing a monthly column for the campus newspaper, learning about social media management and analytics, branding, updating the website, and managing social media campaigns and in-person events. They also engage with broader issues like sustainability, diversity, and wellness. Their work with CDR builds up-to-date skills that translate into any field.

What makes you excited about your current research?

My newest projects have a bit of sentimental value for me as I’m taking a look at 19th and early 20th century reporting on industrial America—coal mines, steel mills, railroads, and so on. How did the local press represent these industries, with their promise and their dangers, within the community? The project taps into my previous research into 19th century reporting on American national identity, disaster and breaking news reporting, and journalism in the Gilded Age. Plus it’s a new opportunity to work with local historical societies and to remember the experience of my coal-mining, steel-working, railroading Pennsylvania ancestors.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I am a piano player, former church organist, and lover of old stuff. I also love to travel. My three boys—who came to SRU with me in kindergarten and first grade—were subject to years of vacations to Civil War battlefields, museums, ghost towns, historic newspapers, etc., where mom was on the lookout for the precise location of the Frank Leslie’s illustrator or Mark Twain’s Virginia City, Nevada, writing desk. Now that they are on their own, I’ve spent quite a bit of time helping them move in and back out of dorm rooms, apartments, new jobs, a house, etc. Lucky for me, those trips have taken me down Historic Route 66, to historic cemeteries and churches, to incredible national parks and monuments, and to coffee houses on many adorable—and historic—Main Streets across the country.

Katrina Jesick Quinn is a professor and former chair of the Department of Strategic Communication and Media at Slippery Rock University. She teaches courses in public relations, news and media writing, advanced reporting, and publication design.