Greetings colleagues! It was so wonderful to see so many of you in Philadelphia, a city near and dear to my heart and our nation’s founding. The History Division is strong, and our research and teaching are more important than ever.
Though things have been quieter than during the conference flurry, we have been busy. Program Chair Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen has been pulling together a wonderful slate of panels; thanks to all of you who submitted ideas. The range of proposals engaged deeply with the 2025 conference host city, San Francisco. The call for 2025 will be live in the New Year, and keep an eye out for requests to review. Awards calls are coming together and we will be seeking nominees very soon. All of these activities persist thanks to the service from all of you, and perhaps the most valuable gift we can give the organization.
Chair Rachel Grant (Florida) offered a welcome to the 35 members in attendance. Minutes from last year’s division business meeting were approved unanimously.
Leadership presented an overview of the division’s work during the past year: updating the AEJMC Community page for the division, maintaining the website minus a web administrator, continuing to expand international reach and membership, and celebrating 50 years of Journalism History, the division’s journal. There were no questions. Maddie Liseblad voiced the need for a website administrator.
The History Division welcomes panel proposals for the 2025 AEJMC conference in San Francisco, Calif., August 6 – 10. The theme for next year’s event is “Leading in Times of Momentous Change: Individual and Collective Opportunities.” Panel proposals can be submitted via this link.
The History Division is one of the original divisions of AEJMC, having been established in 1966, and supports research into a variety of topics related to the journalism and mass communication industry, including but not limited to:
the newspaper industry (newspapers, editors, publishers, and reporters)
the broadcasting and cable industry (individual networks, stations, anchors, and reporters)
public relations ( agencies, corporations, campaigns, practitioners, techniques and tactics)
media technologies (computerization, emerging digital technologies, and the early Internet)
Some History Division members focus on the history of media relationships with the government and other power-wielding entities, and some members focus on the histories of technologies from the printing press, the telegraph and the typewriter, to the Internet, while others focus issues of culture, power, and longstanding inequities around race.
The History Division generally accepts and hosts or co-hosts three types of panel proposals each year: Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R), Teaching, and Research.
The annual conference in Philadelphia was a success! I was extremely happy with the community and atmosphere of research, teaching and professional development in our sessions. Thank you to everyone who gave their time and support to the History Division.
Rachel Grant is the outgoing chair of the Media History Division
As the outgoing chair, I have enjoyed my time serving as a leader and truly appreciate everyone. We have had a great journey this year. I appreciate your willingness and dedication to our community. I know incoming chair Brian Creech will bring new perspectives and ideas to make the division better. His insight has always been helpful to me. Also, I am proud of Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen and Autumn Linford as they step into leadership roles. We are moving in the right direction, but society’s need for the understanding history’s impact is still a concern.
We continue to see historical moments and events unfolding with our election season. Hopefully, this election will inspire new projects, panels and collaborations for next year’s conference in San Francisco. History is meant to be chronicled and studied. I end my last chair column with the same words I wrote in the first one— “I encourage our members to explore aspects of diversity, inclusion, and equity — not only in their work but also from the framework of social justice as an everyday practice.”
Matthew is a professor emeritus in the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on social and cultural history, and his most recent book isThe Krebiozen Hoax: How a Mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Organized Medicine (University of Illinois Press, 2024).
What is the primary focus or central question(s) of your history research?
My new book The Krebiozen Hoax focuses on an alleged cancer treatment of the 1950s and 1960s that was rejected by doctors and medical agencies but embraced by many cancer patients and people in good health. The treatment’s rise and fall took place against the backdrop of America’s never-ending suspicion of educational, scientific, and medical expertise. The book explores how people readily believe misinformation and struggle to maintain hope in the face of grave threats to well-being.
In early 2024, Marcus Collins (Loughborough University, UK), Otávio Daros (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), and Ed Timke (Michigan State) were awarded diversity microgrants by Journalism History. Since then, all three have made significant progress on their research.
Assistant Professor of Journalism, Auburn University
What is your favorite class to teach?
Journalism history! I’m even more thrilled than usual, because next fall I have been approved to teach a Women in Journalism History course to be cross listed with the Women and Gender Studies department!
What is your current research project?
I am currently finishing up a book about newsgirls and papergirls. The book, Extra! A History of America’s Girl Newsies, is in peer review now and should (hopefully!) be out sometime in 2025.
Fun fact about yourself?
I don’t really believe in soulmates, but if I did, mine would be my extraordinarily large dog named SunSpot. He’s a Briard (a French sheepdog), he has fluffy long blond hair, and it’s like he was built in every way to be mine. I bring him with me everywhere I am legally allowed.
Dr. Gwyneth Mellinger and Dr. Pam Parry are the recipients of the History Division’s 2024 Exceptional Service Award. This important award is given by the division’s chair and vice chair to members who have provided stellar service.
Gwyneth MellingerPam Parry
Mellinger is a professor at James Madison University. Parry is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University.
Both Mellinger and Parry have provided critical services to the History Division.
Mellinger has chaired the division’s Book Award Committee for several years. She is the author of the book Chasing Newsroom Diversity: From Jim Crow to Affirmative Action. Mellinger is the winner of the 2019 Ronald T. and Gayla D. Farrar Award in Media and Civil Rights History for her research on Charles S. Johnson, an African American newspaper columnist in the 1940s.
Parry has served as the editor of Journalism History since 2021. Under her leadership, she and her staff produced the commemorative issue celebrating 50 years of the journal. She is the 2020 winner of the Best Podcast Guest Award from Journalism History. Parry is the author or co-editor of eight academic books.
“It is a tremendous task to lead the book award and Dr. Mellinger handles all the behind the scenes work of receiving, distributing and seeking the best books in our field,” said Rachel Grant, chair. “The division appreciates all the work she has done to honor her fellow scholars. Serving beyond her term, Gwyn has stayed on through several transitions and we appreciate her time and commitment. Her kindness and leadership is an inspiration to us all.”
“There is so much unseen work that goes into managing a journal, and Journalism History is the cornerstone and legacy of the History Division’s scholarly community. Dr. Parry has stewarded the journal artfully during her tenure,” said Brian Creech, vice chair. “The journal has grown in scope and prominence during her editorship, but also retains an attention to detail and care for prose that makes publishing in the journal a genuinely meaningful experience for junior and senior scholars alike. From an expanded essay series, to facilitating research microgrants, to a rich, critical engagement with the content of scholarship in the journal over its history, Dr. Parry has led the journal in a way that best reflects the breadth and depth of our subfield and pushes the project of Journalism History and journalism history forward.”
Parry and Mellinger will be honored during the History Division’s annual Awards Gala on Aug. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Philadelphia.
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is pleased to announce that Autumn Linford of Auburn University has won this year’s Top Faculty Paper Award.
Autumn Lorimer Linford
She will receive a plaque and a $100 cash prize for her paper, ‘“Is This an Evil Practice?”: Newspapers and Newsgirls.’
The second-place faculty paper award goes to Ashley Walter of Saint Louis University for “After the Gauntlet: Sex Discrimination Lawsuits at The Washington Post, 1972-2003.”
Third place faculty paper goes to Eric Freedman, Michigan State University, Joshua Duchan, Wayne State University , Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, and Finn Hopkins, Michigan State University. This co-authored paper is “Extra! Extra! Sing All About It: Portraying Newsies in 19th and 20th Century Sheet Music.”
In the student paper competition, the top award winner is Hannah LeComte of George Mason University for “Radical or Assimilatory? The Fight for Family Life Education by Virginia’s Gay Press, 1977-1998.” She will receive a plaque and a $100 cash prize.
The second-place student award goes to Joey Mengyuan Chen of University of Maryland for “Dancing with Shackles on: The Consulted New Woman in the Exchange of Letters in Linglong Magazine.”
Third place in the student paper competition was won by Diana Krovvidi of University of Maryland for her paper “How Ethnic Press in the US Urged the Diaspora to Preserve the Ukrainian Language (1893-1914)”
The History Division also awards a top extended abstract award, which will go to the University of Pennsylvania co-authors, Anjali DasSarma and Valentina Proust. Their abstract is titled ““We Want Entire Freedom”: The New Orleans Tribune and the Foundation of Counterpublics Through Affective Discourse.”
The top faculty papers and student papers will be presented together at the division’s top papers panel during AEJMC’s 2024 conference in Philadelphia on Friday, August 9 at 6:30-8:30 p.m.
