A Word from the Chair: May 2026

By the time this issue of Clio is emailed to our members, I will have participated in at least three walking tours under the blazing European summer sun with a group of undergraduates on a study abroad trip to the Czech Republic. The tours take us through the twisty, turny, cobblestone streets of Old Town to former Soviet era monuments to the sites of protest and resistance. We walk by statues and memorials and over stumbling stones and bridges. And we talk a lot about the way that these sites of memory influence the way people engage with and understand history.

I am teaching a class on media, storytelling, and historical narratives that encourages students to think about the way history is constructed, and how memory and history become intertwined. There’s plenty of fodder for discussion focused on the Czech Republic, as students learn about the successful push for an independent Czech state following World War I and then the Nazi, and later Communist, efforts to mute dissent and rewrite history. Yet, it’s not difficult to see parallels between the events of the twentieth century in the Czech Republic and what is currently unfolding in the United States.

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Akehinmi (Tennessee Tech University) Wins 2026 Sweeney Award

Dr. Krystal Akehinmi’s (Tennessee Tech University) article, “‘To Make Pen-Friends through the Medium of Your Journal’: The Role of the Chicago Defender’s Bud Billiken Club in Forging Foreign Reporting and a Transnational Cohort among 1930s Black Youth,” published in 2025 in Volume 52, Issue 2 of Journalism History, has been selected as the 2026 winner of the Michael S. Sweeney Award, an annual celebration of the best article published in the journal.

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AEJMC HISTORY DIVISION ANNOUNCES BOOK AWARD WINNER:  TOM ARNOLD-FORSTER

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has selected the winner of its award honoring the best journalism and mass communication history book published in 2025. It is Tom Arnold-Forster’s Walter Lippmann: An Intellectual Biography (Princeton University Press, 2025).

The committee of judges – Drs. Kathryn McGarr, Will Mari, David T. Z. Mindich (chair), and Cristina Mislan—selected the book after considering many quality entries.

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Montalbano (University of Kentucky) Wins 2026 Covert Award

Headshot of Dr. Catherine L. Covert
Dr. Catherine L. Covert

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) congratulates Dr. Kathryn Montalbano (University of Kentucky) as winner of the annual Covert Award for best mass communication history article, essay, or book chapter published in the previous year.

The award memorializes Dr. Catherine L. Covert (right), professor of journalism at Syracuse University, the first woman professor in Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Journalism and the first woman to head the AEJMC History Division, in 1975. Dr. Covert died in 1983. The award has been presented annually since 1985.

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AEJMC History Division announces David T.Z. Mindich as winner of 2026 Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar Award

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication has selected Dr. David T. Z. Mindich as the 2026 recipient of the Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar Award. A historian and public intellectual whose work examines journalism ethics and the role of media in a democracy, Mindich serves as a professor of journalism in the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award, especially from a division made up of so many extraordinary scholars whose research has so deeply informed and enabled my own,” said Mindich. “And it is a special honor to receive an award named after Dr. Donald Shaw. Knowing that his foundational ‘agenda setting’ article was rejected before it was accepted is a powerful reminder for us all: We can’t all be as brilliant as Dr. Shaw, but we can emulate his persistence.”

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Award Call: Jinx Coleman Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History

The Broussard Award, presented annually, honors innovative, original, tested, and transformative teaching of media and/or journalism history. Applicants for the award may submit one of the following types of pedagogical approaches, including (but not limited to): entire courses, units, individual lessons, classroom activities, assignments, assessments, and/or teaching strategies.

Teaching ideas should be original, tested, and transformative pedagogies that have been used by the author. In alignment with the Division’s belief in the importance of teaching journalism/media history across the curriculum, submissions can include ideas used either in a course dedicated entirely to media and journalism history, or as part of other courses in media and journalism. The teaching idea should be transferrable, in that it can used by other instructors or institutions and should help instructors address one or more of the following concepts: diversity, collaboration, community, or justice.

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Member Q&A: Takeya Mizuno

Takeya Mizuno

Takeya Mizuno is a professor in the School of Political Science and Economics at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan. His research centers on the history of Japanese American journalists in Hawai’i and the mainland United States.

In 2025, Mizuno received a microgrant to examine licensing and censorship of the Japanese “enemy language” press in Hawai’i during World War II. Drawing on archival material, he is examining the press licensing system, censorship, and how Japanese newspapers and readers reacted to stringent press control.

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Q&A with Research Chair Carolina Velloso

Research Chair Carolina Velloso is overseeing the tremendous task of running this year’s research competition, which is no small feat. In the last few years, we’ve seen some changes in terms of who submits papers to the History Division and what subjects they cover – at the last AEJMC, we had an extraordinarily high number of graduate student submissions.

Carolina is here to provide some insight into the process of submitting and reviewing. All paper submissions are due April 1. We can’t talk enough about how important a robust pool of reviewers is to the success of the paper competition and in ensuring each paper receives constructive feedback. Please take the time to fill out this brief survey to sign up as a reviewer. 

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Rothermere Fellow Wins Journalism History’s 2025-26 Essay Competition

Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute Fellow Dr. Thomas Cryer has won the 2025-26 essay contest sponsored by Journalism History.

A panel of judges from across the globe assessed this year’s submitted essay proposals and selected Cryer’s as the best response to this year’s theme, which recognizes the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.

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