As the current president of the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA), Ross Collins of North Dakota State University has long dedicated himself to the advancement of journalism history and stressed its importance to university journalism and communications programs. In his position as president, he has worked to raise the profile of AJHA and encourage more journalism history scholarship.
Recently, Ross provided insight into his approach to journalism history, offered advice for junior faculty members, and explained why all journalism historians need to think internationally.
Q: What is the most recent historical research project you have worked on?
A: I took a look at American volunteers during World War I who served in France before the United States joined the war. Because I’m a journalism historian I was particularly interested in how the French press used these Americans as a propaganda tool to boost morale.
Q: How did you come to your area of scholarship?
A: I began as many of our members did—I was a professional journalist. But I also had a minor in French and a master’s in European cultural history, emphasizing French and German history at the beginning of the last century. When I decided to try for a Ph.D., I thought, why not combine all those? My Ph.D. was in French history, emphasizing journalism.
What was the key moment or turning point when you decided on this approach to historical research?
I’m not sure if there was one. I always tended to have a research interest. When I was a journalist I did a story comparing the texts of Bible translations, based on a variety of scholarly interviews and research. The newspaper actually ran it—they had a lot more space to fill back then, I guess—but the managing editor rolled his eyes and said, “Are you sure you want to be a reporter and not a professor?” Well, I took his question seriously, and tah-dah!
Q: How does/did your research inform your teaching?
A: I hope my journalism history classes become more thoughtful and nuanced every year. In particular, I hope students will learn how really fun it is to research journalism history. I give undergraduates an opportunity to go to the same archives I do, to research a question I also would like to know more about and, I hope, end up with something interesting and even publishable. I don’t think I would know how to direct them without bringing my own research background to the projects.
Q: How does your research program add to the diversity goals of the AEJMC History Division?
A: While I haven’t really sought out internationalists in the History Division, I have in our sister group, American Journalism Historians Association. Since the very beginning of my membership in AJHA I have been part of the group’s international community. We have been small in number, but we try to encourage our fellow historians to reach beyond journalism research in the United States and take an interest in international journalism. That still is a goal of mine, and I think we have seen a growth of interest from the early days. I realize distance and language barrier are challenges, but I think we can still do more.
Q: What advice do you have for junior faculty?
A: As a scholar, to set clear goals based on what you value most, and avoid getting snared away by activities that distract you. My goal from the beginning was, number one, research, number two, teaching. I realize I am at a research university, so those goals somewhat matched expectations. But administrators always came up with projects, committee work, faculty liaisons, publicity campaigns and requests that, if I took on all of them, would pretty much eliminate time I had to do what I wanted to do. I said yes to a few, and no to a lot more. When I was an assistant professor I worried about offending the administrators, but you know what? They didn’t really care, and it made no difference in my promotion or tenure file. But the research and teaching mattered a lot. Now I look back on 25 years. I can’t remember all the committees—did we accomplish anything?—but I do remember the students who have done well, and the publications that I thought were okay.
Oh, a second piece of advice. Never take grading home. Claim your own time. Students can wait. You need to take care of yourself first, before you can take care of others.
Interview Conducted by Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen, who recently received her Ph.D. from the University of Madison-Wisconsin.
