By Kathryn J. McGarr, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Membership Co-Chair

Elizabeth Atwood (Hood College) has written a biography of Baltimore Sun reporter Marguerite Harrison, who was a spy for the Military Intelligence Division in the early 1920s. The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison, America’s First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent is published by Naval Institute Press and is available on Amazon and at other major booksellers.

Michael Schudson (Columbia University) has written Journalism: Why It Matters (116pp plus notes). The book, published in spring 2020, is part of Polity’s “Why It Matters” series of short books directed to undergraduates. It is focused on U.S. journalism, especially over the past 50 years, and also offers some international comparisons.

Jon Marshall (Northwestern University) was promoted to associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism. He was interviewed in August on WBAI radio on presidents and elections.

Pam Parry (Southeast Missouri State University) and Teri Finneman (Kansas University) recently spoke at an online event, “‘19 & ’52: Ike, Women and Equality,” sponsored by the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.

Owen V. Johnson (Indiana University)  has written “Ernie Pyle & Harriett Davidson:  Two Red-Headed Travelers,” published in Traces of Indiana & Midwestern History 32:3 (Summer 2020), pp. 46-55. The article tells the story of Ernie Pyle’s college girlfriend, both before she met him, and then after.  Although she died in 1994 at age 91, Johnson was able to locate her family, and also talk to some people who knew her well.

Dane S. Claussen was appointed Lecturer of Strategic Communications at the University of Idaho in August. Over the summer, the national nonprofit news organization he launched in March 2020, Nonprofit Sector News (also on LinkedIn and Facebook), had eight journalism interns and two IT interns from nine universities. He continues to edit Newspaper Research Journal, which he has done since November 2017.

Will Mari (Louisiana State University) will have an article published this fall in First Monday. “A Short History of Pandemic Coverage on the Internet” examines how previous pandemics, namely, SARS, H1N1 and MERS, were reported online in the early 2000s through the early 2010s.

By Rachel Grant, Membership Co-Chair, University of Florida, rgrant@jou.ufl.edu

Matt Cecil (Minnesota State University, Mankato) was named Interim Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs on Jan. 13, 2020.

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By Perry Parks, Membership Co-Chair, Michigan State University, parksp@msu.edu

Sid Bedingfield

Where you work: I’m an Associate Professor in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Where you got your Ph.D.: I earned my Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications in 2014.

Current favorite class: We have a wonderful “case studies” course at the Hubbard School that allows instructors to focus on journalism and mass media during a particular historical period or event. I use it to teach a course on mass media and the African American struggle for equality, from the antebellum period to the present. The Fall 2020 version could not be timelier.

Current research project: Fellow History Division member Kathy Roberts Forde and I are co-editing and contributing chapters to a book called Journalism and Jim Crow: The Making of White Supremacy in the New South. We have a strong lineup of historians from a range of subfields working with us on the project, which is under contract at the University of Illinois Press. With a little luck, it should be out in 2021.

Fun fact about yourself: As a failed jock, I tried out for my college baseball team just for fun. I was a pitcher, and during one practice, I struck out a star player who was later drafted by a major league team (he swung at a ball over this head). For the next few years, I tracked his progress through the minor leagues, eagerly awaiting the big day when he made it to “the show” and I could say, “I struck out an actual major league batter.” Unfortunately, he only got to Double AA. Saying I struck out a guy who made it to the high minors just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

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By Rachel Grant, Membership Co-Chair, University of Florida, rgrant@jou.ufl.edu

Gregory Borchard (University of Nevada Las Vegas) is editing the second edition of SAGE’s Encyclopedia of Journalism.

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By Perry Parks, Membership Co-Chair, Michigan State University, parksp@msu.edu

Elizabeth Atwood

Where you work: Hood College, Frederick, MD (associate professor)

Where you got your Ph.D.: University of Maryland

Current favorite class: Introduction to Media Writing (I enjoy seeing students learn a new form of writing and gain appreciation for how journalists work.)

Current research project: I have just completed work on the biography of Marguerite Harrison, a Baltimore Sun reporter who was a spy for the Military Intelligence Division in the early 1920s. The book, The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison, America’s First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent, will be published by Naval Institute Press in September.

Fun fact about yourself: I met my husband in Moscow when the Baltimore Sun sent its co-ed softball team to Russia in 1990 to teach Russian journalists how to play softball. That anecdote shows how much money newspapers used to have and how naive we were as we watched the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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By Rachel Grant, Membership Co-Chair, University of Florida, rgrant@jou.ufl.edu

Lillie Fears (Arkansas State University) was named 2020 recipient of the Thomas E. Patterson Education at the annual King Kennedy Awards ceremony. In celebration of Black History Month, the Arkansas Democratic Black Caucus honored Fears and eight other Arkansans. Since 2005, the King Kennedy Awards have recognized outstanding individuals who positively impact their communities and the state.

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