The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has selected Kathy Roberts Forde, Katherine A. Foss, Melita M. Garza, and Will Mari as winners of the 2022 Jinx C. Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History.

The award acknowledges original, creative practices that journalism educators and media historians use in their classrooms to teach media history and seeks to share those techniques with other instructors. Ideas and practices focused on diversity, collaboration, community, and justice receive special attention in the selection process. The award is in its fourth year.

The winning practices submitted by Forde, Foss, Garza and Mari will be featured in a panel at the 2022 AEJMC National Convention in Detroit. Winners will also be honored at the division’s awards gala at the convention. Summaries of their winning practices will be shared on the division’s website after the convention.

This year’s winning practices are wide ranging. Garza’s, for instance, focuses on a course titled “Journalism and Moral Courage” that helps students understand the role of journalism in promoting concepts like democracy, justice, and equality. Foss’s entry includes a health communication history activity in which students play roles in a mock trial centered on “Typhoid” Mary Mallon. Mari’s entry engages students with media history through a transcription project that connects them with primary sources at the Library of Congress and National Archives, and in Forde’s, students write news stories with the help of both historical primary documents and secondary sources.

“All four of this year’s winners submitted creative, tested teaching ideas that embody the innovation the Broussard Award aims to encourage,” said Dr. Ken J. Ward, chair of the History Division’s teaching award committee. “I know I’m already looking for ways to implement these great ideas in my own classes, and others will get that same opportunity at the division’s teaching panel in Detroit.”

Dr. Kathy Roberts Forde is a professor of journalism and associate dean of equity and inclusion in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Dr. Katherine A. Foss is a professor of media studies in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at Middle Tennessee State University.

Dr. Melita M. Garza is an associate professor of journalism in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at Texas Christian University.

Dr. Will Mari is an assistant professor of media history and law in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University.