March 26, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication has selected Dr. Janice Hume as the 2025 recipient of the Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar Award. A prolific and accomplished scholar whose work has focused on journalism history and public memory, Dr. Hume is currently the associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she has taught since 2001 and holds the Don E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism.
Established in 2020, the Shaw award honors a scholar who has a record of excellence in media history that has spanned a minimum of 15 years, including division membership. It is named in honor of the pioneering journalism theoretician, distinguished journalism historian and former head of the History Division, who taught for almost half of a century at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
The award committee was unanimous in its choice of Dr. Hume and its praise for her career. “In influential books and articles, Dr. Janice Hume has enriched the field of media history through her exploration of the relationship between history and memory,” said committee member Carolyn Kitch. “Her research has won many of the History Division’s top honors, and she has been a regular source of expertise in press interviews about the meanings of mourning and memorial in American culture. Moreover, she has built a record of scholarship that connects research to teaching and leadership, mentoring graduate students to their own success and rising status in our scholarly organizations. Dr. Hume has shaped our field in lasting ways.”
Another committee member, Kenneth Campbell, added, “As a history student of Dr. Shaw’s, I know he would be delighted to have Dr. Janice Hume receive this prestigious award named in honor of him. Like Dr. Shaw, Dr. Hume has expanded mass media historical research to explore new ideas beyond the traditional focus, including her insightful scholarship on collective memory, and has given a generation of scholars inspiration and guidance to further create a more inclusive, accurate, and meaningful history.”
Over the course of her academic career, Dr. Hume has written three books, one monograph, and more than twenty peer-reviewed journal articles, on topics ranging from newspaper obituaries to Civil War memory to the 9/11 terror attacks. She has received numerous awards recognizing her excellence in research, teaching, and service, including most recently (in 2022) the Sidney Kobre Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Journalism Historians Association.
“I am floored and humbled by this recognition, especially given the list of scholars who have preceded me as winners,” Dr. Hume said when notified of the award. “I’m thankful for such a dynamic community of media historians in the AEJMC History Division who have encouraged me for 30 years, including scholars like Don Shaw, who set the standard with his excellent body of research. There has never been a more important time for media history, and I hope this community remains strong and resolute.”
Dr. Hume also expressed gratitude to many colleagues. “I appreciate every reviewer of my conference papers, articles and books, and every editor who asked for revisions. Your voluntary service made my work better,” she said. “Special thanks to Betty Winfield, who taught me historical research methods and more, and to my former students Amber Roessner, Brian Creech, Noah Arceneaux, Jason Guthrie and Lexie Little, who continue to inspire me. None of my work would have been possible without the support of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, and especially Dean Charles Davis. I am truly grateful.”
As the letters of nomination for Dr. Hume emphasized, her contributions go beyond her scholarship. She received praise for her mentorship of younger scholars, her service to the profession and to her university, and her ability to inspire students and peers to perform their best work. “There are not enough words to say how grateful I am for Janice Hume—for her scholarship and for her mentorship,” said Amber Roessner, the lead nominator. “Over the last three decades, Dr. Hume’s work in public memory has offered a foundation for a generation of scholars and her mentorship has transformed countless lives. Janice Hume taught me almost everything I know about media history and about navigating higher education. I count myself lucky to have had the chance to learn from Dr. Hume, as do so many in this field and beyond.”
Dr. Hume will be recognized during the History Division’s Awards Gala in conjunction with the AEJMC annual meeting, to be held in San Francisco from August 7-10.