45th Annual AJHA Convention
Greenville, South Carolina | Nov. 5-7
Convention contacts Convention Coordinator Ohio University Registration Coordinator California Polytechnic State University Program Coordinator Duquesne University Convention hosts University of South Carolina South Carolina State Winthrop University Winthrop University Conference Sponsors: | Conference Program Questions about the program should be directed to 2nd Vice President Pamela Walck Go to: Thursday morning | Thursday afternoon | Thursday evening | Friday | Saturday Wednesday, Nov. 4 2 - 6 p.m. Conference Registration 1:30 p.m. Board of Directors meeting5:45 p.m. American Journalism Editorial Advisory Board meeting 7:30-8:30 a.m. Breakfast buffet 8-5 p.m. Conference Registration, with closure during Sidney Kobre lunch 8:30 a.m. Welcome and President’s Address Michael Fuhlhage, Wayne State University, AJHA President 2025-26 9:40-10:40 a.m. – YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS PAPER SESSION: The Transnational Impact of News and Media Ethics Moderator: Erika Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas at Arlington
**Paper Award Runner-up: Jean Palmegiano Award for outstanding transnational journalism research paper ***Paper Award Runner-up: David Sloan Award for outstanding faculty research paper AMERICAN JOURNALISM PANEL: Commemorating the Bicentennial of the Black Press in Communities Across the Nation Introduction: Amber Roessner, Editor of American Journalism, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, faculty Moderator: Rachel Grant, Associate Editor of American Journalism, University of Florida, faculty
American Journalism will dedicate a special issue in Spring 2027 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Freedom’s Journal and the beginnings of the Black press. We are presently reviewing and editing manuscripts for the special issue and planning community commemorations of the bicentennial at a moment when we find Black history under attack. On the occasion of this bicentennial anniversary, our goal is to build on foundational scholarship that has documented the power of the Black Press with work that asks new questions and presents new theoretical and methodological approaches, insights, and arguments and to bring scholarship from the pages of academic journals into our communities through public events and commemorations with collaborators across the country. This panel will offer insight into the focus of the special issue and will provide a call to action for historians of the Black press to engage in commemorative events that celebrate the power of the Black press. 10-10:30 a.m. COFFEE AND HOT TEA SERVICE 10:50-11:50 a.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS PAPER SESSION: Contemporary History: Twenty-first Century Considerations for Media’s Influence and Archival Environs Moderator: Julie Lane, Boise State University
*Paper Award: David Sloan Award for outstanding faculty research paper PANEL DISCUSSION: The Kobre Award at 40: Defining Achievement Then, Now, and into the Future Moderator: Thomas A. Mascaro, Bowling Green State University
This panel will comprise previous recipients of the Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History and give their perspective on the nature of the award and who AJHA seeks to honor. It will address such questions as: What was the organization’s initial goal in creating the award? What happened in the years when no Kobre was awarded? How have we defined lifetime achievement, and how should we define it? How should we value academic versus service contributions? The discussion is meant to give guidance on the types of candidates AJHA hopes to honor, as strong candidates continue to be nominated. 12-1:30 p.m. Kobre Award Luncheon, included with registration Mike Conway, Indiana University, Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement The American Journalism Historians Association Service Awards Committee has named Mike Conway the 2026 recipient of the Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement, AJHA’s highest honor. Conway is a professor emeritus at Indiana University, creator and director of the Indiana Broadcast History Archive, and a former president of AJHA. Conway also spent 20 years working in broadcast news, working as a producer, news director, photographer and anchor at stations in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and North Carolina. His nomination packet included more than three dozen letters of support from colleagues, former Kobre winners, and broadcast hall of famers. |
1:40-2:40 p.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS
PAPER SESSION: The Power of An Advocacy Press Across the Twentieth Century and Beyond
Moderator: Cathy Jackson, Norfolk State University
- Paul Myers, University of Missouri, “The Chicago Defender's Way to Health: Morality, Race, and Venereal Diseases”**
- J. Anthony Guillory, The Citadel Military College of South Carolina, “Civil Rights and Advocacy Journalism in the Dallas Express, 1964-1970”
- George L. Daniels, University of Alabama, “Richmond Free Press as Reflector of the Legacy of Raymond H. Boone, Sr.”*
*Paper Award: J. William Snorgrass Award for outstanding minority-journalism research paper
**Paper Award Runner-up: Robert Lance Award for outstanding student research paper
GRADUATE STUDENT PANEL: AI and Beyond: Leaning into the Future of Mass Communication
Moderator: Karlin Anderson Tuttle, Whitworth University
- Joel Moroney, University of Tennessee
- Yelena Dzhanova, Temple University
- Eric Boll, Ohio University
- Sheila Babulal Lalwani, University of Texas at Austin
- Kelly Kozlowski, Wayne State University
The Graduate Student Panel will focus on the skills necessary for future success in mass communication history, including AI in journalism history education, working with digital archives, international journalism history research, and strategic collaboration with faculty.
2:50-3:50 p.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS
PAPER SESSION: The Fog of War: Censorship, Reportage Shortcomings and Recontextualizing War
Moderator: Ross Collins, North Dakota State University
- Charles Sorrie, The Kehillah School, “Cynicism, Pragmatism, and Crisis Control: French Propaganda and Press Censorship During the February Revolution in Petrograd”
- W. Joseph Campbell, American University, “Flaws of War Correspondence: Evaluating Recurrent Shortcomings Over Time”*
- Taylor Sheridan, University of Missouri, “Separation of War and Death: Recontextualizing War Photography through Robert Capa and Lee Miller”**
*Paper Award: Wally Eberhard Award for best historical research paper on media and war
**Paper Award Runner-up: Wally Eberhard Award for best historical research paper on media and war
PANEL DISCUSSION: The Southern Black Press: Warriors with Words
Moderator: Calvin Hall, North Carolina Central University
- Stanley D. Miller III, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- Rebekah Barber, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- David W. Bulla, Augusta University
This panel will explore what characteristics and practices southern Black newspaper journalists employed in reporting for prominent southern Black press outlets on key issues facing Black life in the American South to serve as a political and liberative tool for Black southerners during pivotal periods in Black American history. This panel will discuss the impact of these Black press outlets in the shaping and advancement of Black sociopolitical life in the American South, specifically Georgia and North Carolina. The panel will facilitate a nuanced discussion on the specific role that southern Black journalists played in defying and countering narratives regarding Black life reported by the mainstream press and through doing so utilized language to convey a shared experience and identity with Black readers within the American South. The panel will provide an intricate insight into how the Black press upheld this role during key periods of American history: the immediate years following the Civil War, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era, with an emphasis on those journalists’ use of public spaces as they looked at such topics as education, economic uplift, and intellectual warfare.
3-3:30 p.m. COFFEE AND HOT TEA SERVICE
4-5:30 p.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS
HIGH-DENSITY PAPER SESSION
GROUP 1 - Seduction, Morality and Social Control
Moderator: Lorraine Ahearn, Elon University
- Mark Bernhardt, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, “‘Where were their Guardian Angels?’ Tracing the Seduction of ‘Fallen Women’ in New York City, 1830-1850”
- Ian McKenzie, University of Missouri, “‘Let’s See Those Beatles Get Out of This One’: How Southern Bible Belt Newspapers Contributed to Moral Panic Following John Lennon's ‘Jesus’ Statement”
- Jenna Fisher, University of Missouri, “How Student Journalists Weighed in During the Height of McCarthyism: A Case Study”
- Joel Moroney, University of Tennessee, “Viola Warren and the Oak Ridge Journal: "Soft News," Gendered Labor and War Journalism in Oak Ridge”
Group 2 – Race, Religion and Power
Moderator: Christina Littlefield, Pepperdine University
- Brandi Hunter, University of Memphis, “The Negro Cult Leader: How The New York Times Covered Father Divine and the International Peace Mission Movement for 30 Years”
- Darren Chan, Temple University, “‘The Most Racist Judgment of the Century’: Lum v. Rice (1927) and the Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans in the press”
- Aigerim Toleukhanova, University of Maryland College Park, “Remembering Against Oblivion: Early 1990s Media Coverage of the 1930s Kazakh Famine in Kazakhstan and Russia”
PANEL DISCUSSION: Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Four Women Journalists Across the Twentieth Century Who Defied Gender and Race to Uplift Silenced, Marginalized Voices
Moderator: Ashley Walter, St. Louis University- Pamela E. Walck, Duquesne University
- Christian Lucas, Simmons University of Kentucky
- Kimberly Wilmot Voss, University of Central Florida
- Natalie Pursche, University of Kansas
This panel seeks to expand the historical record with an exploration of four women who pushed the journalistic norms of their time and aims to introduce these remarkable women to a wider audience: Julia B. Jones and Blanche Taylor Dickinson, who both found prominence on the pages of the Pittsburgh Courier by reporting stories and writing columns their white peers only dreamed of tackling; Vivian Castleberry, who boldly wrote about domestic violence and pay inequity in the 1960s and 1970s when it was still a social taboo to discuss such private matters; and Jeanie Greene, who dared to put Alaska Native faces on broadcast television to better share the plight of Native voices and eventually gave Alaska Natives autonomy over their own narrative. This panel will demonstrate how these remarkable women honed their craft and told critical stories in ways that demands each a place in the annuals of mass media history.
5:40-6:40 p.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS
PAPER SESSION: Women, Media, and Power: The Tension Between Constraint and Agency
Moderator: Natascha Toft Roelsgaard, James Madison University
-
Sheila B. Lalwani, University of Texas at Austin, “When Adjustment Isn't Acquiescence: A Microhistory of Brigitte Reimann and Mass Media Censorship in East Germany, 1950-1974”*
- Rich Shumate, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, “Frenemies with a ‘Newshen': The Interrogatory Relationship Between JFK and Sarah McClendon that Defied Gender Limits”
- Julie Hedgepeth Williams, Samford University, “‘TO UNFORTUNATE FEMALES’: The Ever-More-Obvious Language of Abortion Advertisements in the 19th Century”
*Paper Award: Robert Lance Award for outstanding student research paper
PANEL DISCUSSION: Pragmatism and Optimism: Supporting Student Trust and Learning in the Age of “AI”
Moderator: Jennifer Moore, University of Minnesota Duluth
- Anna E. Lindner, Nazareth University
- Will Mari, Texas A&M University
- Erika Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas at Arlington
- Julien Gorbach, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
The emergence of ChatGPT has caused a pedagogical reckoning in higher education. In fields such as history, communication, media, journalism, and related disciplines that emphasize critical thinking, reading, and writing, the viability and purpose of traditional assignments have been brought into question. This panel addresses ongoing existential questions about the purpose of such assignments within the humanities by historicizing moments of technological advancement, as well as considering the ethics of current “AI” technologies and weighing their relationship with larger societal structures and outcomes. It will also pose practical questions about the current capabilities of “AI” technologies and how to build critical “AI” literacy among students; emphasize the importance of process over product through our teaching; and ultimately, develop mutual trust with students. There will be time for conversation and sharing resources, including a “best practices” document with suggestions for going forward.
6:45-8 p.m. Local Journalist Award Reception, included with registration
7:30-8:30 a.m. Breakfast Buffet
9-11:30 a.m. Conference Registration
8:30-9:50 a.m. - YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS
PAPER SESSION: Herstory: The Power of One’s Name, Professional Belonging, Black Girlhood, and Raising Consciousness
Moderator: Tracy Lucht, Iowa State University
- Autumn Lorimer Linford, Auburn University, “Power of a Pen Name: Women Journalists and the Benefits of a Pseudonym, 1850-1900”*
- Yelena Dzhanova, Temple University, “Who Counts at the Paper of Record? Recognition, Gender, and Institutional Belonging in Times Talk, 1947–1980”
- Susan Bragg, Georgia Southwestern State University, “Outrageous Acts: Late 19th Century Press Politics & Black Girlhood in Southwest Georgia”
- Bailey Dick, Bowling Green State University, “From Consciousness Raising or News-making? Second Wave Feminism, Epistemology and Industry Norms”**
* Paper Award: Maurine Beasley Award for outstanding women's history research paper
**Paper Award Runner-up: Maurine Beasley Award for outstanding women's history research paper
PRESIDENT’S PANEL: Pushing Back Against Ideologically Motivated Attacks on Academic Freedom and Historical Vandalism
Moderator: Michael Fuhlhage, Wayne State University, AJHA President 2025-26
Panelists to be announced soon.
10-10:30 a.m. COFFEE & HOT TEA SERVICE
10-11:30 a.m. Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation prize
Winner: Claire Rounkles, “An Imperfect Source: The Midwestern Black Press and the Anti-Lynching Movement from 1890-1940"Honorable mentions went to:
- Meshari Thamer Alotaibi for “Portrayals and Perspectives: The Representation of Gulf States in American Political Cartoons from Early Relations to 2020”
- John-Erik Koslosky for “Selling the Farm: How the Shift from Local to Corporate Newspaper Ownership Undermined American Investigative Reporting”
12-1:30 p.m. Donna Allen Roundtable Luncheon, ticket required
2:15-5:30 p.m. Historic Tour of Greenville, ticket required
7-8 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:10-10 a.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO RESEARCH-IN-PROGRESS SESSIONS
Defying the Odds: The Resilient Black Press and Broadcasting Perseverance
Moderator: Jon Marshall, Northwestern University
- George L. Daniels, University of Alabama, “The Media Efforts of George E. Johnson As Soul Train Enabler”
- Rachel Grant, University of Florida, “Upholding Black Human Rights: Coverage of the United Nations from Courier columnist Dr. Marquerite Cartwright”
- Lucas DeBenedetti, Clemson University, “Mapping the Black Press: Visualizing the Influence and Extent of African American Owned and Operated Newspapers”
- Antoine Haywood, Dannika Horrace, and Mariana Colom, University of Florida, “Finding the Florida Photo News: Palm Beach County’s African American Community Newspaper”
- Anna E. Lindner, Nazareth University, Tracing Intergenerational Racial Trauma: Our Family’s History and the 1924 Fort Myers Lynching”
- Felecia Jones Ross, Ohio State University, “The Black Press Reaction to the Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II”
- Pamela E. Walck, Duquesne University, “Ralph L. Edwards and How Radio’s Practical Joker Gave Wounded Veterans a Voice”
- Madeleine Liseblad, California State University, and Gregory Pitts, Middle Tennessee State University, “The Preeminent Singing Cowboy’s Media Empire: Gene Autry’s Golden West Broadcasters, 1951-2000”
- Carey Kelley, Missouri State University, “Hard Times Ahead: Resilience and Innovation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the Reagan Years”
Democracy, Discourse, and Discovery: Pressures and Constraints on Media
Moderator: Eric Boll, Ohio University
- Zachary J. Rzicznek, Temple University, “Constructing Constituencies for Christ: Christianity Today, the Civil Rights Movement, and Mobilizing White America”
- Erin K. Coyle, Arizona State University, “Serving as ‘the Cornerstone of the American System of Pluralistic Democracy’: Leading Journalists' Reflections on Press Rights and Responsibilities in the United States”
- Raja Das, Ohio University, “Framing the First Amendment: Analyzing Local Newspaper Discourse of the Skokie Controversy, 1977-1978”
- Ken Ward, Pittsburg State University, “Big Questions for the Tiniest Papers: Studying the News Sheets and Micro Newspapers of the Twentieth-Century United States”
- Julie B. Lane, Boise State University, “U.S. Intervention in Korea Through the Eyes of The New Yorker Washington Correspondent”
- Daniel Marshall Haygood, Elon University, “The Last Japanese WWII Holdout or Not? – Comparison of Japanese Newspaper Coverage”
- Claire Rounkles, University of Memphis, “A Lunatic Comes Down to Earth: Suicide, Spectacle, and Mental Illness in Life Magazine, 1936-1972”
- Gerry Lanosga, Indiana University-Bloomington, “‘Public Relations IS Journalism – Public Relations IS NOT Journalism’: The Fight for the Professions, Sigma Delta Chi 1957-1958”
- Natascha Toft Roelsgaard, James Madison University, “From ‘Cover Girl’ to ‘Extraordinary Scientist’: Jane Goodall and the Making of Scientific Authority in the News”
10-10:30 a.m. COFFEE & HOT TEA SERVICE
10:10-11:40 a.m. – GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING
- Approval of 2025 Minutes
- Election of officers
- Constitution and Bylaws amendments
- Officer and committee reports
- Presentation of research and service awards
- Presidential succession
- The gavel will be passed to Erin Coyle, Arizona State University, AJHA President for 2026-2027
11:50 a.m. – 1:20 p.m. WORKING LUNCH FOR OFFICERS/BOARD
1:30-2:30 p.m. AJHA Book of the Year Award Panel
2:40-3:40 p.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS
PAPER SESSION: Latin Influences in Media Histories: Filling Voids and Pursuing Justice
Moderator: Bailey Dick, Bowling Green State University
- Michael Fuhlhage and Kelly Kozlowski, Wayne State University, “Hispanic Link News Service's Inaugural Year: Filling a Void in the Mainstream Press”*
- Jose Duran, University of Memphis, “Reading Lemon Grove Through the Press: Themes in English- and Spanish-Language Press Coverage of School Segregation in 1931”
- Anna E. Lindner, Nazareth University, “Pursuing Law and Order in Spanish Cuba: The Colonial Communications of Mariano Ricafort and Miguel Tacón, 1832-1838”
*Paper Award Runner-up: J. William Snorgrass Award for outstanding minority-journalism research paper
LOCAL PANEL DISCUSSION: Media, Social Justice and Civil Rights History Primary Sources in South Carolina
Moderator: Kenneth Campbell, University of South Carolina, faculty
- Bobby Donaldson, director, Center for African American History and Research, University of South Carolina, faculty
- Chris Frear, lead researcher and writer, Center for Civil Rights History and Research, University of South Carolina
- Jill Found, assistant director for History, Research, and Education, Center for Civil Rights History and Research, University of South Carolina
This panel will discuss the creation of the University of South Carolina Center for African American History and Research, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and will identify and share primary sources housed at the center. Those sources include recent additions such as: the papers of recently deceased broadcast journalist Steve Crump and newspaper journalist Luke Weston, both of whom covered civil rights and social justice issues in North Carolina and South Carolina during the 1970s-2000s; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee files; and outtakes of newscasts of WIS TV, the leading capital city station in Columbia, S.C. Panelists will share funding opportunities for research and published research that used the center’s primary sources.
3-3:30 p.m. COFFEE & HOT TEA SERVICE
3:50-4:50 p.m. YOUR CHOICE OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS
PAPER SESSION: Transnational Influences of Culture and War
Moderator: Debra Reddin van Tuyll, Augusta University
- Julia Longo, Temple University, “The Americas: Latin American coverage in underground news”
- Ross F. Collins, North Dakota State University, “When Cocoa Hit the Press: Early Journalism and the Dawn of Chocolate Culture in France, 1631-1700”
- Anu Olagunju, Temple University, “’We’d Had Quite Enough Colonial Hospitality’: Transnational Reporting and the Role of the American Black Press in Post-World War II Colonial Administration in West and Central African Colonies”
PANEL DISCUSSION: Media, History & Public Memory
Moderator: Amber Roessner, University of Tennessee
- Lisa Burns, Quinnipiac University
- Carolyn Kitch, Temple University
- Melissa Greene-Blye, University of Kansas
- Jason Guthrie, Clayton State University
While public memory includes first-hand testimonials, historical accounts, and oral histories, much of what we know and remember about the past is mediated. News media coverage, books, movies, television shows, podcasts, museums, archives, and more contribute to our shared social memories. This panel session focuses on the significant role media—and media historians—play in shaping the public memory of people, places, events, and eras in US history, paying particular attention to who has the cultural authority to contribute to public memory and whose voices have been marginalized, forgotten, or purposely left out of more traditional historical accounts. This session also highlights the connections between individual and collective memories, the impact of shared history on social group identities, and the importance of reclaiming the stories of those who have been overlooked and adding them to our shared historical narrative.
5:45 p.m. Gala Dinner