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.

By: Erin Coyle

I fondly recall Professor Michael S. Sweeney auctioning off items during the first American Journalism Historians Association Convention that I attended. He kindly coaxed friends to bid on books, memorabilia, and an AJHA hoodie to support graduate student travel to the conference.

The tradition of providing this financial assistance exemplifies AJHA goals to foster the advancement of research and to build connections among journalism historians. The organization briefly shifted to collecting monetary donations to raise travel funding for students. After receiving a monetary donation from the Sweeney family as a seedling for Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Stipends, the organization resumed holding auctions to support student participation in annual conferences and build connections among members in 2022.

For the past two years, members have donated books, art, and other items. Proceeds have paid for Sweeney stipends. Students who have presented at an annual convention, attended most convention sessions, and volunteered during the convention have received these awards.

“As a broke graduate student, receiving financial aid to attend the annual conference has helped me in more ways than I can mention,” Claire Rounkles wrote in an email.

Rounkles, a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri and an assistant professor at The University of Memphis, has participated in coordinating auctions since 2022. These efforts provided valuable opportunities for her to interact with students and faculty during annual conventions.

Eric Boll, an Ohio University graduate student who received Sweeney stipends in 2022 and 2023, described AJHA conventions as welcoming and accessible. Receiving support to attend the 2022 convention meant so much to Boll that he asked Bob Woodward to autograph a book that Boll and Ohio University Professor Aimee Edmondson donated for the 2023 American Journalism Historians Association auction.

“I could not have gone to any of the AJHAs without the assistance of the Sweeney fund,” Boll said.

Raja Das, an Ohio University graduate student who received a 2023 Sweeney Travel Stipend, indicated that such funding is important for international students to be able to attend conferences.

“I am glad that the Sweeney Fund Award also ensures that we can be among diverse communities and secure us a home away from home," Das wrote.

The 2023 auction raised $2,758, and six students received Sweeney stipends. The auction committee hopes to raise $3,000 in 2024 to provide more support for graduate students.

Seventeen members donated 66 items for the 2023 auction. Members wishing to donate items for the 2024 auction should submit information about each item before September 20. You can bid on items during  the week of the conference.  Donated items must be brought to the conference hotel in Pittsburgh, Pa. Recipients of items must bring their items home from the conference.

“The auction is an important way that AJHA can support and encourage our new generation of brilliant media history scholars,” said Jon Marshall, who chairs the auction committee. “It’s also a fun way for people to interact during the conference and win some cool things.”

Erin Coyle is an associate Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Temple University Lew Klein College of Media and Communication, an affiliate Professor of Law in the Temple University Beasley School of Law, and member of the AJHA Board of Directors and the AJHA Auction Committee.

By: Melissa Greene-Blye

It is with pleasure and gratitude that I share an update on a research project made possible by support from the American Journalism Historians Association via a Joseph McKerns Research Grant awarded in July of 2022. 

The grant funding made it possible for me to visit the Sequoyah National Research Center (SNRC) housed at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. During my three-day visit, I had the privilege of talking with SNRC Director Daniel Littlefield, Ph.D. and Erin Fehr, Assistant Director and Archivist, both of whom were generous in sharing their time, expertise, and knowledge of the materials housed in the archive. 

For those not familiar with SNRC, its self-stated mission, paraphrased here, is to acquire and preserve the writings and ideas of Native North Americans, through collecting the written word and art of Native Americans and creating a research atmosphere that invites Indigenous peoples to make SRNC an archival home for their creative work. SNRC’s collection includes artistic expression, literature, photography, as well as historical and contemporary Indigenous newspapers and journalistic work product. 

For my purposes, I went with the intent of finding copies of student-produced newsletters and newspapers from residential boarding schools, places where Native children were forced to give up their traditional languages, cultures and beliefs and, instead, adopt non-Native ways of speaking and behaving. I wanted to find out what, specifically, these publications contained in the way of student-generated content. What were these students talking about and, perhaps more importantly, what weren’t they talking about?

My interest in this topic began with the mention of a single newsletter produced by young Cherokee women who attended a church-sponsored residential school in the territory where that tribe, like so many others, had been forcibly relocated. So, it was with great excitement that I learned SNRC had some copies of this newsletter in the archives, and it was that information that prompted my plans to visit.  

It truly was a journey into the past as I had to rely on microfilm to view the archival materials I sought to examine, but thanks to today’s technology, I had scanned copies of those newsletters in my email inbox before I left at the end of my first day. Sadly, there were only two copies of the Cherokee student newsletter in the archives, likely other copies were destroyed in a fire at the seminary school in 1887. This gave me pause to rethink the focus of my intended research, particularly as this research was taking place only months after the discovery of mass graves on the sites of several of these schools was making international headlines alongside calls for justice for those children, their descendants, and the tribal communities those children came from. I am now broadening the scope of this research to re-examine “captivity narratives” using Indigenous Standpoint Theory to go beyond the words on the page, to provide a broader context for how these students’ words were controlled and edited to support the assimilationist mission of these schools.  

Traditional captivity narratives tell the stories of the experiences of White persons who were taken captive by Native tribes, often in ways intended to reinforce negative images of those tribes. The words of these Native students, contained in residential school newsletters and newspapers, flip that narrative, making the Native student the captive; this research project seeks to examine that role reversal and cast new light on how we define “captivity” narratives. 

The funds provided through this grant were crucial in taking the first step to elevate the voices and experiences of these students while also supporting a project that will serve to educate non-Native readers and scholars about a watershed moment in our history as Indigenous people, while simultaneously telling an important, and overlooked, part of our media history.

Melissa Greene-Blye is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and an affiliate faculty in Indigenous Studies at the University of Kansas. She is also a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. Her research explores representations of American Indian identity in journalism.

Wayne Dawkins' latest project covers the lives of two sports journalists, Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith, and how their reporting in Baltimore's Afro-American and the Pittsburgh Courier, respectively, pushed for desegregation in baseball in the 1930s and 1940s. Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith: The Dynamic Duo That Desegregated American Sports, the latest entry in Routledge's Historical Americans series, is available on July 17 and can be purchased directly from Routledge for a 20 percent discount using code AFLY02.

Wayne Dawkins is a professor of practice in multimedia journalism at Morgan State University. Before joining academia, Dawkins worked at newspapers throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

By: Julie Lane

The Public Relations Committee has developed a social media plan to facilitate member engagement and to raise AJHA’s public profile. Help us share with the world what you and your fellow journalism historians do. Here are a few ways you can do that:

• Follow AJHA on our new Instagram account (AJHAsocial) and our X/Twitter account (@AJHAsocial) if you are on either platform. Encourage colleagues and other interested people to follow us as well.

• Tag us on relevant Instagram posts and tweets you make from your personal accounts.

• Respond to prompts we post on Instagram and X/Twitter about your memories of AJHA conventions, recent journalism history articles you’ve read, your work in archives, etc.

• Suggest journalists, museums, libraries, and other related organizations for us to follow. Email your suggestions to julielane@boisestate.edu.

Thank you for your help as we work to enhance the AJHA public profile.

Meg Heckman is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Media Innovation at Northeastern University. Her most recent book is a biography of newspaper publisher and leader in the twentieth century Republican party, Nackey Scripps Loeb (Political Godmother: Nackey Scripps Loeb and the Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party, University of Nebraska Press, 2020). Heckman's current work examines health journalism written by women in the mid-twentieth century.

How did you become involved with AJHA?

I first learned about AJHA nearly a decade ago but didn’t get involved until the pandemic when I presented some research in progress at an excellent virtual conference. It was such a great way to connect with new colleagues during an otherwise difficult time.

How does your professional experience as a journalist inform your teaching and/or research?

I spent roughly a dozen years as a reporter and, later, the digital editor at the Concord Monitor, New Hampshire’s capital city newspaper. That experience helps me teach core skills such as interviewing, newswriting and editing, but my time in the newsroom also taught me how to lead teams, manage projects and communicate expectations—all things that are crucial to successful teaching!

What topics or questions are you pursuing in your current research?

I have a few projects in the works right now, but the big one involves documenting how women journalists in the 1940s and 1950s shaped the evolution health/medical journalism. Outside of media history, I’m also involved in various efforts to encourage institutions of higher education to do more to help rebuild the local news ecosystem.

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

My fellow media historians tend to ask great questions and share great advice, but I would love more opportunities to discuss how digital tools are reshaping the research process and our understanding of media history.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

Staying active and getting outside as much as possible are key to my mental health. I also enjoy cooking and spending time with my family.

By: Natascha Toft Roelsgaard

The benefits of academic conferences are vast and many. They offer opportunities to build valuable connections with other scholars, discover emerging trends and topics in the field, and serve as a safe space to share and receive feedback on research projects—and who doesn’t love a chance to explore a new city?

Attending academic conferences is also an important stepping stone for graduate students, expanding their professional network, fine-tuning research ideas, and improving presentation skills. But attending can be costly. That’s why the AJHA auction, our annual fundraiser to support student travel, is so important. Last year, the auction, led by Jon Marshall, raised more than $2,700; this year, the committee hopes to raise $3,000.

All money raised helps fund the Michael S. Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Stipend, which supports students whose papers have been accepted by reducing the cost of attending the conference.

Claire Rounkles, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri and past stipend recipient, said that such financial support is vital for first-generation students like herself to attend. With the Sweeney Travel Stipend, Rounkles has attended several AJHA conferences, presented research papers and works in progress, and served on a panel.

“As a broke graduate student, receiving financial aid to attend the annual conference has helped me in more ways than I can mention. The opportunity the conference provides students to engage with scholars and to learn how to present is invaluable,” Rounkles said. “Besides the opportunity to advance my research, I have also fostered connections that have helped me in the job hunt. 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.”

To support student conference travel, you can donate an item or bid on one—or do both. Use this form to donate items or packages. It will ask you to briefly describe your item, upload a photo, and suggest a starting bid. Not sure what to donate? We are looking for historical books, magazines, newspapers, journalism history-related trinkets and tokens, such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, cameras, messenger bags, and glasses. Maybe you have a package of local goods or university merch you are willing to part ways with, and our members always get excited when wine and spirits are in the mix.

All donated items will be uploaded to Give Butter, which is the same app we used last year. While some items will be live auctioned during the conference, most bidding will happen on the app. So, keep your eyes peeled and bid early and often!

Natascha Toft Roelsgaard is an assistant professor of journalism at Muskingum University in Ohio. She serves on the AJHA Auction committee.