Laura Purcell has won the inaugural Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award for her thesis, “Getting People to Wish What They Need: How the United States Government Used Public Relations Strategies to Communicate Food Policy during World War II, 1941-1945.” Purcell completed her research at Virginia Tech University under the direction of Cayce Myers.

Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Dicken-Garcia Award recognizes the outstanding thesis in journalism or mass communication history completed during the previous calendar year. Both Purcell and Myers will receive cash prizes during the division’s awards gala Aug. 6 at the AEJMC National Convention in Toronto.

According to the History Division’s Thesis Award Committee, this thesis is of value to the study of WWII governmental public relations efforts, the response of U.S. newspapers and magazines to the war effort, and to the study of influences on the American diet. One judge commented, “This was a well-written and thoroughly researched thesis that makes a valuable and much-needed addition to the public relations literature.”

Chaired by Amy Mattson Lauters, Minnesota State University, Mankato, the Thesis Award Committee also consists of Julie Lane, Boise State University; Brian Gabrial, Northwestern State University of Louisiana; and Pete Smith, Mississippi State University.

The History Division created the Thesis Award in 2019 to honor the late Hazel Dicken-Garcia, an esteemed journalism historian and long-time educator whose estate funds the award.