37th Annual AJHA Convention
Salt Lake City   |   Oct. 4-6, 2018

Convention contacts

Convention Coordinator
Caryl Cooper
University of Alabama

Registration Coordinator
Ken Ward
Lamar University

Program Coordinator
Donna Lampkin Stephens
University of Central Arkansas

Convention hosts

University of Utah
Kimberley Mangun
David Vergobbi
Glen Feighery

Special Events


Squatters Pub is the site of the closing gala dinner. 

AJHA Awards Reception | Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon | Gala Dinner

Sidney Kobre & Teaching Awards Luncheon ♦ Thurs., Oct. 4
Included with registration (sponsored by the Brigham Young University School of Communications)

Attendees enjoy a plated, table service lunch as AJHA honors the winners of the Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History and the National Award for Excellence in Teaching. AJHA's highest honor, the Kobre Award recognizes individuals with an exemplary record of sustained achievement in journalism history through teaching, research, professional activities, or other contributions to the field of journalism history. The annual AJHA Award for Excellence in Teaching honors a college or university teacher who excels at teaching in the areas of journalism and mass communication history, makes a positive impact on student learning, and offers an outstanding example for other educators. See the Awards page for information on honorees.

AJHA Awards Reception ♦ Thurs., Oct. 4
Included with registration (sponsored by the University of Utah Department of Communication and College of Humanities, with additional support from the University of Alabama Department of Journalism and Creative Media)

AJHA annually bestows its Outstanding Local Journalist Award for Substantial Contribution to the Public Interest to a journalist local to the convention city whose work has had a positive impact on the community. The recipient serves as a featured speaker at the Thursday evening reception. Reception attendees enjoy hot and cold hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar at this event.

After 15 years as a journalist with both The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Salt Lake Tribune, Joan O’Brien graduated from the University of Utah College of Law in 2003. She used her legal expertise to help save the Tribune after a hedge-fund owner sold half the paper's future revenues to its competitor, The Desert News.

O'Brien became an expert on the federal Newspaper Preservation Act, spent weeks combing through documents from earlier conflicts involving the two papers, and wrote letters that prompted a Department of Justice investigation. She also formed the nonprofit Citizens for Two Voices, which raised funds for legal fees and filed a federal anti-trust lawsuit.

The organization dropped the lawsuit in 2016, after a local businessman bought the paper. Then-Tribune Editor Terry Orme praised O’Brien’s “selfless, tireless and sometimes thankless campaign to save The Salt Lake Tribune, and keep it as Utah’s informational watchdog and investigative beacon.”

Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon ♦ Fri., Oct. 5
Additional charge

The annual Donna Allen Luncheon celebrates contributions of women to the field of journalism. American Journalism Historians Association invites a woman journalist local to the convention city as its honored guest and featured speaker for the luncheon. Attendees enjoy a plated, table service lunch at this event.

Nancy Conway retired in 2013 after serving for more than 10 years as the first female editor in the 132-year history of Utah’s largest newspaper, The Salt Lake Tribune. During her tenure at the Tribune, the newspaper was recognized for Public Service and General Excellence in print and online locally, regionally, and nationally. 

A Massachusetts native, Conway began her newspaper career in 1976 at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. She has been a reporter or editor at newspapers in Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, and Utah. Several organizations have honored her for her contributions to journalism and the community, including the Society of Professional Journalists, American Society of Newspaper Editors, and Associated Press.

Conway twice served on a Pulitzer Prize Jury and in 2007 received a Gatekeeper Editors Fellowship to Uganda in East Africa from the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University. She also served as host and mentor to two female editors from the Middle East, one from Saudi Arabia, another from Yemen, through the International Editors Project.

Gala Dinner ♦ Sat., Oct. 6 ♦ Squatters Pub
Additional charge

The closing event for the annual AJHA convention enables convention attendees to network and reminisce over the convention's activities in a social setting. The Gala will be hosted by Squatters Pub at 147 West Broadway, about three blocks from the hotel in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. Transportation will be provided for those who need it. The Salt Lake City pub is the flagship location of a small chain with brewpubs and ale houses throughout the Salt Lake area. Squatters beers also are sold throughout Utah, bottled in cooperation with Wasatch Brewery.

Salt Lake City Convention Sponsors

 

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