The History Division sponsored a “living history” panel during AEJMC 2026 in New Orleans examining how to apply different aspects of journalism history to the present. Below are teaching prompts to consider using in your classroom.
Continue readingBy the time this issue of Clio is emailed to our members, I will have participated in at least three walking tours under the blazing European summer sun with a group of undergraduates on a study abroad trip to the Czech Republic. The tours take us through the twisty, turny, cobblestone streets of Old Town to former Soviet era monuments to the sites of protest and resistance. We walk by statues and memorials and over stumbling stones and bridges. And we talk a lot about the way that these sites of memory influence the way people engage with and understand history.
I am teaching a class on media, storytelling, and historical narratives that encourages students to think about the way history is constructed, and how memory and history become intertwined. There’s plenty of fodder for discussion focused on the Czech Republic, as students learn about the successful push for an independent Czech state following World War I and then the Nazi, and later Communist, efforts to mute dissent and rewrite history. Yet, it’s not difficult to see parallels between the events of the twentieth century in the Czech Republic and what is currently unfolding in the United States.
Continue readingThe Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference – co-sponsored by the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication – is accepting submissions for its 2026 conference, which will be held in person on March 27, 2026 in New York City.
Deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30th, 2026
This one-day, interdisciplinary conference welcomes faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars researching the history of journalism and mass communication, including advertising and public relations. Topics from all geographic areas and time periods are welcome, as are all methodologies. The joint conference offers a welcoming environment in which participants can explore new ideas, garner feedback on their work, and meet colleagues from around the world interested in mass communication history.
When: Friday, March 27, 2026, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern (U.S.) Time
Where: Columbia University, 116th and Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Registration fee: $100, including boxed lunch. Free to graduate students, with optional boxed lunch for $30.
Proposals for paper presentations, research-in-progress presentations, or panels are all welcome. Your proposal should detail your presentation topic and offer a compelling rationale for why the research would interest an interdisciplinary community of scholars.
Submissions should be emailed to jjchc.submissions@gmail.com.
Please remove any identifying information from your paper or abstract, and attach it to your email as a PDF or Microsoft Word document. In the body of your email, please include your name, preferred email address, institutional affiliation, and title/rank (if applicable). If you are submitting a panel proposal, please include that information for all panel participants.
Authors will be notified about the status of their proposals by mid-February.
Please direct questions to one of the conference co-chairs:
Carolina Velloso, cvelloso@umn.edu
Robin Sundaramoorthy, ros325@lehigh.edu
Autumn Linford, all0093@auburn.edu
Panel proposals for the 2026 AEJMC conference are due to the History Division Friday, Oct. 3, and the submission form is now open.
Division members are encouraged to develop panel proposals that thoughtfully engage historical topics on several fronts, including research, teaching, and professional freedom and responsibility (PF&R). Strong panel proposals should include a diverse representation of scholars and media professionals, not just in terms of race, ethnicity and gender, but also career stage, type of institution, and research approach.
Continue readingClick here to download the History Division’s schedule for the AEJMC 108th Annual Conference in San Francisco, California. Regular conference events run Aug. 7-10, 2025, with pre-conference events set for Aug. 6.
Note that the History Division Awards Gala will be held Aug. 6 from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. This gathering recognizes our top award winners of the year and celebrates the importance of journalism history. Pre-registration is required.
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Colleagues, I hope your summers have been restful and regenerative. It is hard to believe that we are just weeks away from the annual conference in San Francisco. There is a spectacular history program planned, and all my gratitude to Caitlin Cieslick-Miskimen (Idaho) and Jason Guthrie (Clayton State) for the tireless work they’ve put into this program over the past several months. The state of the division is strong, thanks in no small part to the service of this leadership team and the exceptional quality of contributions to research, teaching, and PF&R demonstrated across the program.
As you finalize your schedule for the conference, please make plans to join us for the Division’s awards gala on Wednesday, August 6, at 7: 30 p.m. to mingle and to celebrate this year’s award winners. We will also take time to commemorate and honor the memory of our dear friend and former Journalism History editor Pam Perry. The fellowship of the gala is one my favorite parts of AEJMC, and it sets a great tone of community and connection felt during the rest of the conference.
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Maurine Beasley, Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, is the 2025 Reilly Award Winner. Beasley was selected for her long, dedicated service to Journalism History, and in particular her many years as an article reviewer.
The Reilly Award is named after Tom Reilly, Journalism History’s founding editor. Previously, the award had been given to the most downloaded article on the journal’s website. With the academic publishing model evolving, Journalism History’s Publications Committee decided to change the award’s focus to the unsung heroes of the publication process: the reviewers. Without reviewers, academic publishing would not work. They receive no payment and put in hours of work for each article.
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Bailey G. Dick of Bowling Green State University has won the 2025 Michael S. Sweeney Award for her article, “What We Talk about When We Talk about Women: Benevolent Sexism in Historical Studies of Women Journalists, 1974–2023.”
The Sweeney Award, presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), recognizes the outstanding article published in the previous volume of the scholarly journal Journalism History. The Division’s Publications Committee selected the article from among five finalists provided by Journalism History’s current Editor Perry Parks and immediate past Editor Pam Parry. In addition to receiving a plaque and cash prize, Dick will be honored during the History Division’s awards gala at this year’s AEJMC conference in San Francisco.
Continue readingChair Rachel Grant (Florida) offered a welcome to the 35 members in attendance. Minutes from last year’s division business meeting were approved unanimously.
Leadership presented an overview of the division’s work during the past year: updating the AEJMC Community page for the division, maintaining the website minus a web administrator, continuing to expand international reach and membership, and celebrating 50 years of Journalism History, the division’s journal. There were no questions. Maddie Liseblad voiced the need for a website administrator.
Continue readingThe History Division welcomes panel proposals for the 2025 AEJMC conference in San Francisco, Calif., August 6 – 10. The theme for next year’s event is “Leading in Times of Momentous Change: Individual and Collective Opportunities.” Panel proposals can be submitted via this link.
The History Division is one of the original divisions of AEJMC, having been established in 1966, and supports research into a variety of topics related to the journalism and mass communication industry, including but not limited to:
Some History Division members focus on the history of media relationships with the government and other power-wielding entities, and some members focus on the histories of technologies from the printing press, the telegraph and the typewriter, to the Internet, while others focus issues of culture, power, and longstanding inequities around race.
The History Division generally accepts and hosts or co-hosts three types of panel proposals each year: Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R), Teaching, and Research.
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