Awards

American Journalism Awards | Research Grants | Research Paper Awards

Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement: Jean Folkerts

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.

This year's Kobre Award recipient is Jean Folkerts, visiting professor and scholar at the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism at Kansas State University and dean emeritus and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Folkerts received the award and delivered brief remarks at the annual awards lunch on Oct. 6. Read the press release.

National Award for Excellence in Teaching: Wayne Dawkins

Presented at the annual Awards Luncheon, the National 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. An honorarium of $500 accompanies the prize.

This year's winner is Wayne Dawkins, professor in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University. Read the press release.

AJHA Book of the Year Award: Leonard Teel

AJHA's Book of the Year Award recognizes the best book in journalism history or mass media history published during the previous calendar year.

This year's recipient is Leonard Teel (Georgia State University, emeritus) for Reporting the Cuban Revolution: How Castro Manipulated American Journalists (LSU Press, 2015).

Teel received the award and discuss his research during a special conference session on Oct. 8. Read the press release.

Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Prize: Vanessa Freije

Since 1997, AJHA has presented the Blanchard Prize for the best doctoral dissertation dealing with mass communication history completed during the prior calendar year.

Vanessa Freije completed her dissertation, “Journalists, Scandal, and the Unraveling of One-Party Rule in Mexico, 1960-1988,” at Duke University under the direction of Jocelyn Olcott.

The following scholars earned honorable mention for their dissertations:

• Brian Shott (University of California-Santa Cruz; director, David Brundage)
• James West (University of Manchester; director, Eithne Quinn)

All three award recipients discussed their work in a special conference session on Oct. 7. Read the press release.

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American Journalism Rising Scholar Award: Candi Carter Olson

Editors of AJHA's quarterly academic journal American Journalism present the Rising Scholar Award at the annual General Business Meeting to recognize the achievements and potential of an untenured scholar.

This year's recipient is Candi Carter Olson (Utah State).

The award comes with $2,000 in research funding, underwritten by a gift from Stan Cloud in honor of his wife, the late Barbara Cloud, an early member and former president of AJHA. Read the press release.

Best American Journalism Article: Michael Socolow

The Best Article Award honors research published in American Journalism within the last year that is original, rigorous, and makes an outstanding contribution to developing scholarship in the field of journalism and mass communication history.

This year's recipient is Michael Socolow (University of Maine), for “‘A Nation-Wide Chain Within 60 Days’: Radio Network Failure in Early American Broadcasting.”

Socolow received the award during the annual General Business Meeting on Oct. 8.

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Joseph McKerns Research Grants

Joseph McKerns Research Grants provide funding of up to $1,250 per person for media history research projects while recognizing and rewarding the winners.

Following are this year's winners, announced during the general business meeting on Oct. 8:

Will Mari, Northwest University, “A History of English-language Newspaper Newsrooms in Kigali, Rwanda”

Melita Garza, Texas Christian University, “Ignacio Lozano and La Opinion”

Debra Reddin van Tuyll, Augusta University, “The Pre-Famine Irish-American Press, 1809-1840”

Pete Smith, Mississippi State University, “An Investigation of Journalist Merle Miller’s Role in Recording the 1950s Broadcasting Blacklist”

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Research Paper Awards

During the general business meeting on Oct. 8, the following researchers received awards for their papers presented at the convention in St. Petersburg:

Maurine Beasley Award For the Outstanding Paper on a Women’s History

Winner: Candi Carter Olson, Utah State University, “Because of the Places She Had to
Go: Changing Women’s Roles Through the Women’s Press Club of Pittsburgh”

Runner-up: Glen Feighery, University of Utah, “Questioning the Atom Masters: News
Coverage of Above-Ground Nuclear Testing, 1951-1953”

Runner-up: Pete Smith, Mississippi State University, “ ‘A Lady of Many Firsts’: Press
Coverage of the Political Career of Mississippi’s Evelyn Gandy, 1948-83”

J. William Snorgrass Memorial Award for the Outstanding Paper on a Minorities Topic

Winner: Cristina Mislan, University of Missouri-Columbia; Jinx Broussard, Louisiana State
University; and Rachel Grant, University of Missouri-Columbia, “‘Larger than Life’: Celebrity Journalism, Gender and Black Politics in Fay M. Jackson’s Hollywood Adventures, 1933-1935”

Runner-up: Gwyn Mellinger, James Madison University, “A Struggle over Meaning: Harry
Ashmore’s Speech to the Southern Governors”

Runner-up: Bernell Tripp, University of Florida, “John Q. Adams’ Western Appeal: Voice of Black
Midwesterners in the Midst of Accommodation”

Jean Palmegiano Award for Outstanding International/Transnational Journalism Research

Winner: Dianne Bragg, University of Alabama, “David Wilmot’s Proviso: An Amendment for
War”

Runner-up: Debbie van Tuyll, Augusta University, “Transnational Journalism History: An
Alternative Paradigm for Studying the Role of the Press”

Runner-up: Jon Bekken, Albright College, “Cultura Obrera: Building a Transnational Syndicalist Culture in the Atlantic Maritime Trade”

Wally Eberhard Award for the Outstanding Paper on Media and War

Winner: Elisabeth Fondren, Louisiana State University, “Disloyal or Merely Distrusted? Editorial
and Political Views of the German-Language Press in 1917”

Runner-up: Glen Feighery, University of Utah, “Questioning the Atom Masters: News Coverage of
Above-Ground Nuclear Testing, 1951-1953”

Runner-up: Willie Tubbs, University of Southern Mississippi, “Hardened Leaders: Randy Old
Officers in Blighty’s World War II Military Cartoons”

Robert Lance Memorial Award for Top Grad Student Paper

Winner: Elisabeth Fondren, Louisiana State University, “Disloyal or Merely Distrusted? Editorial
and Political Views of the German-Language Press in 1917”

Runner-up: Kenneth Ward, Ohio University, ‘Head Thrown Back, Eyes Alert’: Sharing Nature in the
Columbus Dispatch Column of Edward Sinclair Thomas

Runner-up: Willie Tubbs, University of Southern Mississippi, “Hardened Leaders: Randy Old
Officers in Blighty’s World War II Military Cartoons”

Wm. David Sloan Award for Top Faculty Paper

Winner: Erika Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas-Arlington, “Religious Newspapers and
Presidential Politics, 1840-1848”

Runner-up: Cristina Mislan, University of Missouri-Columbia; Jinx Broussard, Louisiana State
University; and Rachel Grant, University of Missouri-Columbia, “‘Larger than Life’: Celebrity Journalism, Gender and Black Politics in Fay M. Jackson’s Hollywood Adventures, 1933-1935”

Runner-up: Dianne Bragg, University of Alabama, “David Wilmot’s Proviso: An Amendment for
War”

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