Author Archives: Jonathan Anderson

Mentorship Q&A: Kim Voss and Josie Vine

Kim Voss (Professor, University of Central Florida) and Josie Vine (Senior Lecturer, RMIT University, Australia) are current participants in the History Division’s mentorship program, which pairs junior scholars with a senior scholar mentor who can offer advice and support on all aspects of academic life, from teaching to research to work/life balance. Voss and Vine discuss the benefits of the program in this Q+A.

Why did you decide to apply to participate in the mentorship program?

Voss: I decided to participate because I have had such good mentors. I now appreciate helping others. This is my third year in the program and I have enjoyed each experience. It’s been a great reminder of the joys and challenges from previous years. I look forward to the emails and phone calls.

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A Word from the Chair: March 2025

There’s a lot going on, no? I was in a meeting during the second week of the semester with other department chairs and our provost to talk specifically about all the ongoing threats to higher education, and the provost ended the meeting blithely remarking that that the chaos of the past several weeks felt eerily like the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’ve been thinking about the fact that many of our junior colleagues have largely only known the ebb and flow of chaos over the past several years. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the role of professional organizations, like AEJMC, and the stability and community we have strived to cultivate in the division, especially over the past several years. Successive leaders and officers in the division have worked to sharpen the focus on diverse experiences in media history in our conference programming and in our publications while also clarifying the value engaging with the division offers. As our campuses reckon with whatever instability the future brings, as administrators strategize about the language they may use to refocus academic missions away from DEI, as they make hard decisions about budgets in the face of changes to the federal funding landscape, I remain hopeful for the way scholarly community can provide a sense of stability and that the ongoing work of producing and evaluating knowledge continues.

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Research Q&A: Seven Questions with Lisa Burns and Teri Finneman

Names: Lisa Burns and Teri Finneman

University Affiliations: Quinnipiac University, University of Kansas

Research Focus: U.S. First Ladies

1. What is the primary focus or central question (s) of your history research? Explain.

Lisa Burns, associate professor of media studies, Quinnipiac University

Lisa: My motivation is recovering the stories of women whose contributions have been either minimized in our collective memory or forgotten entirely. This often happens with presidential spouses. I was excited to work with Teri on The Cambridge Companion To U.S. First Ladies because we’re taking a different approach to telling these women’s stories. Instead of the typical biographical approach focusing on individual women, this book is a collection of thematic essays examining the first lady institution and the political, social, and cultural influence of the women who’ve served in this role. The result is a more nuanced understanding of how these women have built upon each other’s work to shape the first lady institution and the expectations associated with the position.

Teri: Lisa and I are very focused on public education with our work. We created this book knowing we would do a fair share of speaking about it to the general public. Also, I created a podcast called The First Ladies to tie into the book for that reason. There is a strong niche audience for first ladies and presidential studies, so a key focus was creating content that they would find new and interesting to learn.

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Award Call: Jinx Coleman Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History

The Broussard Award, presented annually, honors innovative, original, tested, and transformative teaching of media and/or journalism history. Applicants for the award may submit one of the following types of pedagogical approaches, including (but not limited to): entire courses, units, individual lessons, classroom activities, assignments, assessments, and/or teaching strategies.

Teaching ideas should be original, tested, and transformative pedagogies that have been used by the author. In alignment with the Division’s belief in the importance of teaching journalism/media history across the curriculum, submissions can include ideas used either in a course dedicated entirely to media and journalism history, or as part of other courses in media and journalism. The teaching idea should be transferrable, in that it can used by other instructors or institutions and should help instructors address one or more of the following concepts: diversity, collaboration, community, or justice.

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A Word from the Chair: January 2025

It’s early January and I am writing this column in the week following the passing of former president Jimmy Carter. It is the lull after the holidays, I’m prepping for the coming semester. The news is constantly on in the background, and I’ve been struck by a sentiment I’ve heard more than a few times as experts, journalists, political reporters and consultants, and friends of President Carter reflect on his presidency and post-presidency.

Often, they say something along the lines, “Jimmy Carter ended up being right,” and the reporter or interviewer will pause, ask what is meant by that, and there will be a few minutes’ discussion casting an event from the Carter presidency in a new light. It is a bit of a strange moment for a listener, to hear the notion that Carter was a failed president suddenly come up for reconsideration, as if the historical narrative told to us born after his presidency was suddenly up for revision.

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Call for Nominations: Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar Award

Nominations are open for the AEJMC History Division’s 2025 Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar Award. This division honor will recognize an individual for excellence in research on the history of journalism and mass communication. Nominees must have a minimum 15-year academic career and a record of division membership. To submit a nomination, please compile a single PDF file with the following items:

Cover letter that explains the nominee’s research contributions
Minimum of two letters of support
Nominee’s current C.V.

Self-nominations, with the accompanying supporting materials, are welcome. Nomination packets should be sent to committee chair Matthew Pressman at matthew.pressman@shu.edu. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2025.