The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication History Division awarded five winners for the second annual Transformative Teaching of Media and Journalism History teaching-idea competition, renamed the Jinx Coleman Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History in late 2019. The recipients were:
- Lisa M. Burns, Quinnipiac University
- Elisabeth Fondren, St. John’s University
- Andrew Offenburger, Miami University
- Joe Saltzman, USC Annenberg
- Pamela E. Walck, Duquesne University
The competition featured original and tested transformative teaching ideas and practices that address pedagogies of diversity, collaboration, community, and/or justice.
“Come to the 2020 panel as ‘students’ ready to learn five innovative teaching practices to transfer to your universities and classrooms,” said Kristin Gustafson, who created the contest in 2019. Gustafson, University of Washington Bothell, and Lori Amber Roessner, University of Tennessee, the Division’s teaching co-chairs, will moderate the 3:15–4:45 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6, panel at the 2020 AEJMC Conference in San Francisco, where the teaching competition’s winners will present 12- to 15-minute mini, hands-on teaching modules.
Gustafson and the History Division created the competition to acknowledge and share best practices publicly that journalism educators and media historians use in their classrooms. The contest was designed to serve three AEJMC History Division goals: (1) help the division grow and diversify by inviting people from other divisions; (2) encourage pedagogies of diversity, collaboration, community, and justice; and (3) support an equal balance of History Division attention to teaching standards, research, and professional freedom and responsibility.
The contest was renamed the Jinx Coleman Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History in late 2019. We recognize the many years and levels of Dr. Broussard’s valued contributions to our field as a scholar, mentor, and expert on the history of the black press, black foreign correspondents, black women journalists, journalism, and public relations.
“When Jinx Broussard presented her scholarship on Ida B. Wells-Barnett at the inaugural Ida B. & Beyond Conference in 2015, I had the opportunity to witness firsthand Broussard’s powerful scholarship—in this case, an intervention into the great [white] men’s history that rightfully placed Wells-Barnett among the pioneers of public relations—and her mentorship to a younger generation of scholars interested in recovering the voices of social justice crusaders,” Roessner said. Renaming the award in Broussard’s honor, “is a fitting tribute to someone who has impacted the lives of so many with her profound scholarship and dedicated mentorship.”
The acceptance rate for this year’s competition was 56 percent. The History Division will recognize the five winners at the teaching panel and then again at its Awards Gala held after the business meeting Friday evening, Aug. 7.
“I appreciate all the efforts these instructors have made in engaging students with history and making history relevant, interesting, and meaningful as part of their learning experiences,” said Yong Volz, Missouri School of Journalism, one of this year’s four judges, of the “thoughtful and inspiring ideas.” Yong added: “I especially like how some of them utilized new technology (google street views, satellite images, podcast, twitter, etc.) when designing the assignments. I can certainly see how I would incorporate some of the ideas in my own teaching.”
This year’s ideas “ran the gamut from theory to software and from print to visual,” said another judge, Melita Garza, Texas Christian University. “Whatever your approach to teaching media history, you’ll find innovative leads to help you tweak the way you and your students evaluate the media past.”
“Reading these entries has been inspiring,” said John Ferré, University of Louisville, another judge. “I have come away with fresh ideas about ways to improve the courses that I teach.”
Erika Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas-Arlington, joined Ferré, Garza, and Volz in judging this year’s contest.
Winners will each receive a $75 prize at the teaching panel. One prize was to go to a student scholar or team entry with a student; however, there were no student entries this year. In addition to the conference teaching demonstrations, winners may publish their ideas on the History Division’s website and will be featured in the Division’s Clio newsletter.