1. How did you become involved with AJHA?

I became a member of AJHA because of my interest in media history and in joining a community of like-minded scholars. I am excited to be presenting at my first AJHA conference in October! 

2. How did you develop your interest in journalism or media history?

My interest in media history stems from my scholarly background: my bachelor's degree is in history, and I have carried over that interest to my work in the journalism field, looking particularly at early women journalists and media coverage of women and minorities. I have published two articles that I am particularly proud of: "'A True Newspaper Woman': The Career of Sadie Kneller Miller," published in Journalism History, is the first article-length analysis of the career of a trailblazing journalist from the turn of the twentieth century; and "Race Films and the Black Press: Representation and Resistance," published in American Journalism, which examines Black press coverage of 'race films' in the early twentieth century. I am excited to continue producing media history scholarship—at the upcoming AJHA conference, I will be presenting a co-authored paper on Black press coverage of the pioneering Black figure skater Mabel Fairbanks.  

3. How has your current position as a president’s postdoctoral fellow at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota supported your research and/or teaching goals?

I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a President's Postdoctoral Fellow, which provides scholars two years of protected research time before transitioning into faculty positions. I have been able to advance my research agenda during this time, presenting several papers at conferences and entering them into the publication pipeline. The Hubbard School has been extremely supportive, providing both mentorship and financial assistance in supporting my research goals. 

4. What question(s) do you wish fellow researchers or colleagues would ask about your work?

I always appreciate being able to discuss the practical implications of my work. Whether it's historical scholarship or another kind of qualitative analysis, I think it's very important to examine how my scholarly contributions connect to, and provide insight about, journalism and media in contemporary contexts, and what real-world problems they address. Talking this through with colleagues helps me articulate the "so what" of my research.

5. What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I am an avid sports fan and love attending baseball games and tennis tournaments. I'm also a film buff and often go to the movies to watch the latest releases. Finally, I have just started learning to play the guitar and am enjoying it so far!

Carolina Velloso is the President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include the professional experiences of women and minority journalists and the representation of women and minorities in media.

By: Jason Lee Guthrie

My research project explores the intriguing case of Leigh v. Warner Bros., Inc. (1997). This case is centered around photographer Jack Leigh’s iconic image “Midnight,” which features the “Bird Girl” statue in a Savannah cemetery. Commissioned for John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, this photograph became the subject of a significant copyright dispute when Warner Bros. produced a film based on the book. The question at issue in the case is whether copyright law can protect something as intangible as a “mood.” This issue is particularly relevant in today’s entertainment industries, where the boundaries of copyright are continually tested by new technologies and creative expressions. 

My interest in this case comes from my primary research agenda on the history of copyright law. I discovered Leigh v. Warner Bros., Inc. (1997) while researching the well-known Williams v. Bridgeport Music, Inc. (2015) case, commonly referred to as the “Blurred Lines” case. In that instance, Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were found liable for infringing Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up.” The outcome of the Williams case was unprecedented in copyright law and had the potential to disrupt established practices within the entertainment industry. Although the subsequent Gray v. Perry (2018) case somewhat mitigated its chilling effect, it has nonetheless introduced further ambiguity and potential litigation concerning the copyrightability of a creative work’s intangible qualities, such as its aesthetic, vibe, or “mood.”

My favorite aspect of this project so far has been the chance to work with University of Georgia doctoral student Lexie Little. The funds from the McKerns grant were primarily to hire her as a research assistant. Anyone acquainted with her work will not be surprised at all to learn that she has been fabulous to collaborate with. Her meticulous attention to detail and insightful analysis have been invaluable. To date, we have completed extensive primary source research, focusing on the legal history of the case and the comprehensive collection of Jack Leigh’s papers housed at the University of Georgia’s Special Collections Libraries. This collection includes 200 linear feet of material, providing a rich source of information on Leigh’s work and the legal battle that ensued. 

Our research also examines how the case was covered in contemporary news media and the entertainment industry trade press. This dual approach helps to contextualize the legal proceedings within the broader cultural and technological shifts of the late 1990s. By analyzing articles, editorials, and industry reports, we gain a multifaceted understanding of the case’s impact and the public discourse it generated.

Some key findings thus far are that Leigh’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. was only partially successful, highlighting the complexities that copyright law encounters when it seeks to address rapid technological change. The case occurred during the early days of the internet, a period marked by significant changes in how creative works were produced, distributed, and consumed. Our research explores how these technological advancements influenced the court’s handling of the case and the evolving legislative logic surrounding copyright. By examining cases that have cited Leigh v. Warner Bros. in the past 25 years, we hope to shed light on its lasting impact on copyright law. This historical perspective is crucial for understanding current debates about the copyrightability of increasingly ephemeral, digital works.

Lexie and I look forward to presenting our findings at a conference and ultimately submitting an article to an academic journal. The case of Leigh v. Warner Bros., Inc. offers a fascinating lens through which to explore the boundaries of copyright law. By examining the legal, cultural, and technological contexts of this case, our research could contributes to a deeper understanding of how copyright can—and cannot—protect the intangible qualities of creative works. This historical perspective is essential for navigating the complexities of copyright in the Digital Age.

Jason Lee Guthrie is an assistant professor of communication and media studies at Clayton State University. Within media history, he studies creative industries and intellectual property law. He received a Joseph McKerns Research Grant in 2023.

By: Natascha Toft Roelsgaard

The American Journalism Historians Association 2024 conference in Pittsburgh is fast approaching, and so is the chance to participate in our annual auction event to support graduate student travel. Maybe you are finally ready to part ways with an old bottle of whiskey collecting dust in the dark corners of your office, or you want to donate a signed copy of your latest book. 

Every year, AJHA members near and far donate treasured items to the cause, from books, magazines, and newspapers to antique cameras, newspaper totes, and original artwork. The money raised will help fund student travel to our annual conferences through the Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Stipend. 

Academic conferences present rich opportunities for networking and sharing research, both essential to graduate students as they advance in their academic careers. At the 2023 conference, six students received a travel stipend. One of them was Claire Rounkles, a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri and assistant professor at the University of Memphis.

“The opportunity the conference provides students to engage with scholars and to learn how to present is invaluable. While receiving the travel stipend, I presented papers, work in progress, and served on a panel,” Rounkles wrote in an email. “Besides the opportunity to advance my research, I have also fostered connections that have helped me in the job hunt.”

Over 60 items were donated last year, and the auction raised $2,358. The committee hopes to surpass $3000 this year to help even more students attend the conference. If you want to donate an item, please fill out the form before Sept. 20. Uploading a photo and description of your item only takes a few minutes. Items will be up for bids during the week of the conference. Donated items must be brought to the conference in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The travel student stipend, named after the late Professor Michael S. Sweeney, ensures the inclusivity of graduate students at future conferences. “Any effort to continue the Sweeney Travel stipend will help future scholars and advance the legacy Mike Sweeney held of promoting students to be the best they can be,” Rounkles wrote in an email.

The auction website opens the week of Sept. 23 and will accept bids until just before the annual business meeting on Saturday, Oct. 5.

The AJHA Board of Directors is proposing an amendment to the constitution and by-laws officially assigning the awarding of the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Grant to the Education Committee.

As explained in this 2022 announcement, then-president Aimee Edmondson tasked an ad-hoc committee with determining the parameters of a grant to be named after benefactor Hazel Dicken-Garcia. At the AJHA Board's 2022 meeting, the Education Committee was tasked with deciding the grant's annual winner. However, that charge had not been codified.

At the 2023 annual meeting, the Board voted to add the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award to the Constitution and By-Laws.

Addendum B, comprising the last two pages of the document, outlines which AJHA committee is responsible for deciding each AJHA Award, divided according to whether the award is for Service, Teaching, or Research.

This amendment proposes that the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Grant be added as item E under part III (Research Awards) in Addendum B. The wording would be consistent with other items in the addendum, as follows:

E. Education Committee - Hazel Dicken-Garcia Grant: The research grant is intended to provide financial assistance to graduate students and junior faculty conducting research in media history, with preference given to scholars researching 19th- and 20th-century journalism standards, equity issues and the media, gender, identity and the media, media and journalism ethics, international communication, Civil War journalism, and/or free expression/First Amendment issues.

This amendment will appear on the annual election ballot, to be distributed to AJHA members via email in September.

By: Philip M. Glende

I worked as an editor at Knight Ridder newspapers for nearly a decade, concluding with three-plus years at the Akron Beacon Journal, just steps from the office occupied by the late John S. Knight. For more than a decade after getting my doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, I had been thinking that I would like to a do a full-scale biography of Knight, who was active from the 1930s to the 1970s and built Knight Ridder from the little Akron paper to what was once the largest newspaper company in the nation. 

Knight left an extensive collection of personal and business papers at the University of Akron. I started working with the online portion of the Knight collection several years ago. The Joseph McKerns Research Grant allowed me to travel to Akron last fall to begin working with parts of the collection not available online, including correspondence with Basil L. Walters, his top editor while he owned the Chicago Daily News from 1944 to 1959. The collection also includes many photographs of Knight’s professional life, such as those documenting the unscheduled visit of President Lyndon Johnson to the Beacon Journal after the paper endorsed Johnson over Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964. (Knight, a Republican who was a consistent critic of U.S. policy in Vietnam, thought Johnson was “best qualified by experience and temperament” to deal with the problems facing the nation.) The collection also includes scrapbooks containing the more than two thousand columns Knight wrote under the heading “The Editor’s Notebook,” which established Knight’s credentials as a working journalist in addition to a newspaper chain builder. Though one could go through the Beacon Journal for forty years to read his columns, the scrapbooks provided a convenient opportunity to skim the entirety of his work. 

Knight was active during a period of dramatic change in the newspaper industry in the twentieth century. He built Knight Newspapers into a vast chain that included prize-winning papers such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press, Charlotte Observer, San Jose Mercury News, and the Beacon Journal. Knight believed in good newspapers as a business model, and he was an early advocate of readability, visual appeal, lively writing, human interest stories, and interpretive reporting. He also believed newspapers had a civic responsibility, and he repeatedly warned against treating newspapers as little more than cash registers. Knight was an industry leader as the business evolved from independently owned local newspapers to vast publicly owned corporations. When Knight retired in the mid-1970s, newspapers, especially those in the Knight Ridder chain and other respected groups, were better in many ways than in earlier years, but the industry was already on the way to its demise. Newspaper groups went public in the 1960s and 1970s, in part for greater access to capital, but that committed newspapers to prioritize investors over readers or long-term sustainability, it gave analysts and profit-focused institutional investors a role in newspaper management, and it set the stage for the gutting of the industry when advertising and circulation revenue declined in the twenty-first century.

My trip to the Archives and Special Collections at the University Libraries in Akron was a great opportunity to immerse myself in Knight’s professional life. I want to thank the American Journalism Historians Association, former research chair Gerry Lanosga, and the research committee for approving my application. The grant was a significant boost as I was in the early stages of this project. I hope to be able to share this research with other scholars soon.

Philip M. Glende previously served as the director of student media at Indiana State University and worked as a journalist and newsroom manager.

By: Karlin Andersen Tuttle

Walking through Target last month, I was surprised to see aisles jammed packed with binders in a variety of sizes, locker organizers, and rainbow packs of crayons spilling out from the seasonal section and encroaching on the laundry detergent and electronics department. While I was enjoying a few calm days in the midst of summer travel and endless sunny days, small groups of parents and children were debating the strengths of pencil brands and if they really needed six glue sticks for a single school year. I felt thankful that I was many years past searching for the elusive package of highlighters in the correct quantity and colors my school list required, but I was also reminded of another group of students who spent their summer piecing together resources for the year ahead. 

I belong to a group chat of fifteen current and former mass communications graduate students who spent much of the summer months strategizing and planning how they could attend national and international conferences. Many of them are impressive scholars who regularly present top papers, win prizes often given to more seasoned researchers, and bring new ideas or interdisciplinary approaches to established areas. Yet those accolades do not solve their biggest hurdle: affording the registration, travel, and board expenses associated with conferences.

On average, attending a single conference cost members of that group chat $850. While some of their institutions and programs paid for at least part of that cost, they mentioned that their yearly conference funding rarely covered two conferences. That reality often pushes graduate students to attend fewer specialty conferences and skip conventions in which they are not presenting.

As a recent PhD graduate I faced those same challenges but, due to receiving a Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Stipend, attending the AJHA convention was never in question. The money raised during the auction helped bridge the gap between travel funding from Penn State and the full convention costs. Presenting at least year’s convention gave me an opportunity to receive feedback on my dissertation research, network as I entered my first year on the job market, and witness a level of scholarly comradery I had not experienced in other spaces.

For many of us, purchasing scratch and sniff markers or TI-84 graphing calculators never factors into our syllabi prep and finalizing lectures or class activities. However, most of us can remember the difficult years spent balancing limited financial resources with departmental expectations and personal desire to attend conferences. Donating to the Sweeney fund or bidding during the auction lessens those concerns for all graduate students attending the annual AJHA convention.

Anyone interested in donating an item to the 2024 auction should submit information about their donation before September 20 and bring their item to the conference in Pittsburgh. Bidding begins the week of the convention and winners must bring their items home after the conference.

Karlin Andersen Tuttle recently earned a dual-title doctorate in mass communications and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies from Penn State. She also received a stipend from the Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Fund which helped her attend last year’s AJHA convention and present her early dissertation research. She currently teaches at Penn State and serves as the editorial liaison for Mass Communication & Society.

How did you become involved with AJHA?

Following my graduation from the University of Texas in Austin, I received an appointment as Assistant Director of the Center for American History where I served as the Director of the American Media History Archives. The following year I received an appointment to the Journalism Program where I taught American news media history at the graduate and undergraduate level. I joined AJHA and attended my first conference in 2020 in Pittsburgh. I was elected to the Board of Directors and in 2005 became Chair of the AJHA Conference Committee in 2005. I served as the Chair until 2015 and directed our annual meetings in San Antonio, Richmond, Seattle, Birmingham, Tucson, Kansas City, Raleigh, New Orleans, St. Paul, and Oklahoma City. I have presented many papers, participated in programs and presentations at our AJHA meetings over the years and received two President’s Awards for Distinguished Service. 

How did you develop your interest in journalism or media history?

In 1976, I was the editor of the Wimberley View, a weekly newspaper founded that year by my family. We named our paper the View as a metaphor for the majestic hills, wildlife, and scenery in the Wimberley area and the divergent perspectives we wished our newspaper to provide. We covered many significant and controversial stories on political corruption, corporate and utility abuse, damaging actions to our environment and racial tensions and discrimination through in-depth news, analysis, features and provocative opinions. I am proud to say that within a few years the Wimberley View became a profitable and award-winning newspaper. This included many news, feature, and editorial awards, which culminated with the 1980 Texas Press Association Award for Best Weekly Newspaper in Texas.

At the Wimberley View we adhered to the longstanding newspaper tradition of supporting local businesses through news and advertisements. From our first publication forward, our policy was to provide all new businesses with a story and photo of their grand opening. One of these new enterprises we covered was the Feed Bag Restaurant. Their motto was: “Country-fied Country-fried chicken.” A typo on the photo caption to the Feed Bag debut in the View read: “Country-fied Country-fried children.” Of course, I was highly embarrassed and decided to go to the Feed Bag owner and offer my apologies. When I arrived, he said that they were expecting me and started laughing about my mistake. The owner thanked us for increasing his business. Curious, I inquired how that could happen. He replied that since the story came out many people stopped by and offered to drop off their unruly children for the Feed Bag menu. This was an important lesson for me to learn. Honest mistakes are acknowledged and forgivable, but conscious misinformation and errors should be promptly addressed and corrected. These memorable events and many other remarkable journalistic experiences prepared me for the challenges I would face in pursuing my Ph.D. in history and becoming an historian of the media, politics and culture.

What would you like others to know about your work with the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) and the connections with AJHA?

I served on the TSHA Board of Directors from 2019 to 2023 and as President from 2022-23. I am also a TSHA Fellow. Although it may seem as difficult as untangling barbed wire, our challenge as historians in all fields of history is to study and analyze people, events, values, and patterns in society from many perspectives. If we choose otherwise, then we will diminish and ultimately silence these alternative and noteworthy voices from our history.

As historians, we must remove the blindfolds and rise to the challenge of effectively and accurately communicating our history to present and future generations. History should not be written or communicated as a preordained and self-justifying myth or as an historical narrative written from the viewpoint of a single group of people. We must ask the difficult questions and seek the ignored, overlooked, and discounted voices and experiences from our past. As we enact our mission at TSHA and AJHA, our responsibility is to recognize, include, and preserve the histories of all peoples and cultures, whose stories are an essential part of our history. We must endeavor to provide the histories of all underrepresented and overlooked groups along with those whose stories are newly emerging.

Historians do recognize the value and influence that myth and memory play in history. There is an important difference in how historians shine a light into the darkness as we work to reinterpret the popular mythologies that are inaccurate or undeveloped. In addition, as historians and as an historical association, our duty is to provide leadership and support publications, educational materials, and scholarship that follow the principles and practices advocated by the professional historical community as we search for a more accurate past that is useful to all people. Separating the real from the imagined landscape of our past is our duty and our mission. In doing so, our history will provide everyone with a path of understanding and love for our state and nation.

How does your industry experience inform your teaching and research?

The role of the media is in all my ten published works and the many articles I have written over the years. In my book The First Texas News Barons (University of Texas Press, 2005), In this volume I wrote about how twentieth-century newspapers and newsmakers were prominent in our modern historical process. At times, Texas newspapers aggressively published articles and opinions on the importance of a more tolerant approach to society and culture and to embrace modernization. They were often in the forefront in promoting business expansion. Sometimes they took courageous stands and opposed the most extreme of the mythmakers, such as the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. However, all too often they silently acquiesced and supported those who wanted no change to the status quo. This was most evident in the ongoing struggles for civil rights, safer working conditions, providing equal access and opportunity, and preventing exploitation of people and the environment. Prior to the 1960s, very few mainstream publications challenged these assumptions, and one’s chances for advancement at any level depended on one’s race, gender, or class. Texas newsmakers remained comfortable as advocates for growth and economic expansion, and their voices perpetuated many of the myths and memories of our history.

One prime illustration of this phenomenon was the 1936 Texas Centennial. Journalism and history played a pivotal role in the Texas Centennial celebration that blended promotion, commerce, and chauvinism. The state’s newspaper publishers were a driving force in the creation and the campaign for the Centennial events and its legacy. In doing so, these publishers popularized the new western image of Texas. This legacy was based partly on history and on mythology, as the press promoted the rawhide-tough, independent cowboy. This new imagery for Texas did not replace the adherence to the South and the Lost Cause mythology that perpetuated the story that slavery was not a cause for the Civil War. The new idea of “Texanism” as an Anglo-centric historical narrative became popular during the difficult times of the Great Depression and the promotional opportunities presented by the Texas Centennial.

Journalists played a pivotal role popularizing this new image of Texas. Recognizing an opportunity for marketing and business expansion, the Texas Press Association (TPA) served as a booster and created an organization to aggressively promote the Centennial. In 1924, TPA selected Lowry Martin, the advertising manager for the Corsicana Daily Sun, to lead the Centennial charge. Martin’s committee included Houston’s Jesse H. Jones and other newspapermen. They developed a strategy and launched a campaign for the 1936 Centennial. They successfully drew support from the Texas newspaper industry that followed with the endorsement of the state’s business and political leadership.

Themes for the Centennial celebrations largely focused on individualism and the frontier spirit of nineteenth-century Anglo Texans. The publishers’ efforts to mark the 1936 Centennial were wildly successful. Millions of dollars in federal and state funds supported the events that attracted people from across Texas and the nation. Many businesses and local governments enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon as they viewed this as a unique opportunity to receive the Texas Centennial brand to promote their own products and services.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

A sixth generation Texan, I am an historian, author, and ardent environmentalist. Brenda and I live in scenic arts community of Wimberley, Texas where our land is in a wildlife management and natural area. I am very grateful to family, friends, our teachers and all who provided inspiration, wisdom, and lessons from life over the years.

I received my Ph.D. and a B.A. in History from the University of Texas at Austin and my M.A. in History from Texas State University. My first book was a biography of Ralph W. Yarborough, the People’s Senator (University of Texas Press, 2001) which garnered many regional, state, and national awards. I have authored and edited ten books and hundreds of articles on U.S. and Texas history, biographies, oral histories, conservation, and sustainability. I am retired from the University of Texas at Austin and President of Patrick Cox Consultants LLC, a historical and nonprofit consulting firm.

I was honored to receive the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award from Texas State University. I am a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association, TSHA President from 2020 to 2021. I am a Distinguished Alumni of the Texas State University College of Liberal Arts and serve as Chair of the Council of Liberal Arts. I am Fellow and past board member of the East Texas Historical Association and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, the Philosophical Society of Texas, and the Organization of American Historians.

I am a former President of the Wimberley Lions Club and the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association. I currently am an elected trustee of the Wimberley Village Library Board of Directors and the Trinity Edwards Springs Protection Association (TESPA)Board of Directors.

by Cathy Jackson, Norfolk State
Nominations and Elections Chair

It’s that time of the year when AJHA members learn about the candidates for open leadership slots. One AJHA member was nominated to serve as second vice president, and three members are were nominated for three board of directors seats.

The 2nd VP, under normal circumstances, rises to the presidency in two years, then serves on the board as ex-officio for an additional two years. Board members serve for three years and are expected to attend board meetings at the annual convention.  

A nominee to the Board of Directors or to any officer position must have been a member of the AJHA for at least one calendar year immediately preceding the date of the election. No more than one person from an institution can serve on the Board at one time.

The election will be conducted via online survey, distributed in early September. A write-in option will be available for each position. 

Below are brief bios for each nominee.

Second Vice-President Candidate

Pam Parry is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University, where she teaches media history. Her research focuses on public relations, diversity, and presidential communications. She’s the author of Eisenhower: The Public Relations President and co-editor of the Women in American Political History book series, which has published seven books to date with more on the way. She has co-edited two books on campus diversity titled Coping with Gender Inequities: Critical Conversations of Women Faculty and Exploring Campus Diversity: Case Studies and Exercises. She just completed her three-year term as editor of Journalism History. The AEJMC History Division recently gave her the 2024 Exceptional Service Award for her contributions to the publication. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi.

A lifetime member of AJHA, joining in 2009, she served as a member of the AJHA Board of Directors from 2015-2018. She was also a judge for the AJHA Book Award in Spring 2016 and Summer 2019; chair of the Education Committee, 2015-2017; and a member of the Public Relations Committee, 2010-2013.

Parry said, "As a 15-year member of AJHA, I want to give back to the organization that advances the discipline to which I devoted my life. My professional goal involves progressing media history as a discipline, and that goal aligns with the mission of AJHA. In the six years since I was on the AJHA board, I served in other leadership capacities and on other historical boards that equipped me to serve as the Second Vice President. I spent the past three years advancing media history for the AEJMC History Division, and now, I would like to do the same for AJHA. My love of this organization drives me to want to lead it."

Board of Directors’ Candidates

Julie Lane, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Boise State University. She has been a member of AJHA since 2016 and has served on the Public Relations Committee for the past four years. As the Public Relations Chair for the past two years, she has worked with her fellow committee members to design and implement a social media strategy to facilitate member engagement and to raise AJHA’s public profile. Lane appreciates the supportive environment AJHA provides to graduate students and to faculty at all levels and would like to bring her experience to the AJHA board as the organization continues to fulfill its mission of advancing mass communication history education and research.

Julie’s research focuses on the construction of narratives by and about journalists and news institutions, including the efforts of conservative media to cultivate the idea of liberal media bias. Her work has been published in Journalism History, American Journalism, The Blue Review, and Communication & Sport. She earned her Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Marquita Smith, Ed.D., is associate dean for graduate programs and research at the University of Mississippi. She is a former Fulbright Scholar, who lived and worked in Ghana and Liberia. As a Knight International Journalism Fellow, Smith created a judicial and justice reporting network in Liberia which continues to operate. She has more than 14 years of experience in higher education, and more than 15 years as an award-winning journalist. Smith earned her Ed.D. at the University of Arkansas.

Smith attended her first AJHA in 2017 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Since that first conference, she published on HBCU radio history and radio history in West Africa, specifically Ghana. As a former head of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Commission on the Status of Minorities, Smith’s research interests include health communities and ways media impact and inform underrepresented communities. Her research interests also focus on media development, public health communications, and topics on diversity, equity and inclusion. 

As an AJHA board member, Smith will advocate for the importance of journalism history and its relevance to contemporary media practices. Smith would also work to promote the preservation of historical records and the integration of journalism history into educational curricula and memorialization projects. She says it would be an honor to contribute to the direction and priorities of AJHA and, by extension, the field of journalism history. "Serving on the national board of AJHA, would also provide great opportunities for professional growth and leadership development and for me to give back to the journalism history community and support the work of scholars and practitioners in the field," Smith said.

Pamela E. Walck, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Multiplatform Journalism in the Media department of McAnulty College of Liberal Arts at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Walck's research explores how news routines and story frames in the mainstream and Black press influenced audience understanding of race and race relations, with a particular focus on World War II. She received her Ph.D. in Journalism History and Mass Communication from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University 

Since Walck’s first AJHA conference in New Orleans in 2013 (as a second-year doctoral student), the organization has been her academic home. Among its membership, she found mentors, colleagues, and friends. These amazing people encouraged her in academic research pursuits, first as a doctoral candidate, then as a tenure-track professor, and now as a tenured scholar. 

Walck is a dedicated member of AJHA.  She served on the Oral History Committee, then chaired that group, and she assisted on the elections committee. Four years ago, Walck successfully applied to be the editor of American Journalism. As she steps down from that role, AJHA’s academic community would benefit from having her join the AJHA board. Her expertise as editor, in addition to being a long-term member, would provide invaluable insights.

“Over the last few years, it has been my greatest pleasure to serve AJHA in this capacity," Walck said. "It allowed me to support other scholars at every level in their academic journeys. It has helped me share AJHA with a wider audience. And it has made me see I have more to give to an organization that has given so much to me. It would be my honor to serve as a board member -- and hopefully support a whole new generation of media historians.”

By: W. Joseph Campbell

The 2022-23 Joseph McKerns grant of $1,250 helped me gain momentum on an emergent research project that examines the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg from varying perspectives, including that of erroneous and exaggerated news reporting. My papers delivered at AJHA conferences in 2022 and 2023, respectively, addressed elements of this research. I was deeply honored that both received the David Sloan award for best faculty paper.

More specifically, the McKerns grant helped finance research trips from my home in suburban Washington, DC, to Columbia University in New York, where I examined a collection of papers of Peter Wellington Alexander, a leading Confederate reporter. Alexander's dispatches after the Battle of Gettysburg figure prominently in the emergent project. In fact, my 2022 AJHA paper, “Proto-pack Journalism in Gettysburg’s Aftermath: Parsing the Extravagant Claims of the Confederacy’s ‘Greatest’ War Correspondent,” focused on Alexander's erroneous reporting. The paper also won the AJHA Eberhard award.

In addition, the McKerns grant helped cover expenses related to my separate trip to Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Historical Society, which has an extensive collection of the papers of George Gordon Meade, commander of the Federal Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg and afterward. The image below shows a letter that Meade wrote in 1864. The Meade papers were useful, primary-source material for my 2023 AJHA paper, which debunked the notion that Northern war correspondents organized and pursued a news boycott of Meade after he ordered the humiliation and expulsion of a Philadelphia Inquirer journalist who reporting angered the general. The paper, “Interrogating A Conspiracy: About That Civil War Press Boycott of General Meade,” also won the Eberhard award.

Additionally, the grant was helpful in covering local transportation costs related to a visit to the Library of Congress, where I examined microfilm holdings of Civil War era newspapers, some content of which was incorporated in the  “Interrogating A Conspiracy" paper.

Kate Dunsmore is professor emeritus in the Department of Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her current research examines American Revolutionary era newspaper production with a focus on what timeliness meant to eighteenth century readers.

How did you become involved with AJHA?

I think I learned about AJHA first at the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, about 12 years ago. I really enjoy the AJHA conferences; people are nice and always have interesting things to talk about.

How did you develop your interest in journalism or media history?

It started with my dissertation, which analyzed the role of the press in the US-Canada alliance in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. I noticed some frames being taken up with great vigor, more than seemed justifiable by the current event. An example was the “terror haven” framing of Canada following the 9/11 terror attack. That got me thinking about how deeply engrained was the framing of Canada as a suspect haven. Before long, I was back to the era of the American Revolution. So, I am starting there.

What makes you most excited about teaching or research?

I’m now Professor Emeritus, so not really teaching anymore. What I found most exciting was seeing students who might be struggling—perhaps because they were first in their families to attend college—then find their footing.

I’m very excited to have the time for research now. My teaching and service load was quite heavy, but I retain full library privileges and am burning up the online databases and interlibrary loan. I take an inductive approach to research, so it's exciting not to know how things will transpire. For example, currently I am looking at references to timeliness in Revolutionary era newspapers. But, then, I felt the need to know about conceptions of time in the prior century or two. Reading about the early modern personal letters sent, copied and distributed, I realized that expectations of timeliness of newsletters shifted with respect to newspapers and possibly shift again in America in the Revolutionary era.

What question(s) do you wish fellow researchers or colleagues would ask about your work?

I’ve never worried about that! The communication and journalism history community has been very welcoming. I’m glad to see the conversation about interdisciplinary approaches to communication and journalism history. Social phenomena are complex. I’m confident that tools such as discourse analysis are helpful in accurately analyzing the past.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I’m converting what was suburban lawn into native perennial gardens. So far, so good! I also now have time to attempt more challenging work in textile arts, including garment design.