By Erika Pribanic-Smith, History Division Chair, University of Texas-Arlington, epsmith@uta.edu

The History Division leadership team has been busy in the three months since the convention in Washington, D.C. Although you may have seen some of this news already, I thought it worth recapping to give the membership a sense of where we are and how much we have accomplished in this short time.

The national AEJMC organization looks for our activities to be divided into three categories: teaching, research, and PF&R (Professional Freedom & Responsibility). The latter encompasses the core areas of Free Expression, Ethics, Media Criticism and Accountability, Diversity and Inclusion, and Public Service.

When the division went through its five-year review in August, it became clear that the division has focused heavily on research in recent years. Teaching and PF&R activities had been limited to Clio columns and conference panels. Thus, generating more balance and synergy among the three areas became a goal for this year. We are well on our way to accomplishing this aim.

First of all, shortly after the convention we issued the call for our Transformative Teaching of Media and Journalism History competition, an initiative Teaching Chair Kristin Gustafson spearheaded. This contest emphasizes teaching but also touches on PF&R, as it rewards pedagogies involving diversity, collaboration, community, or justice.

Another initiative that supports our members’ teaching—as well as their research—is the new Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award for Outstanding Thesis in Journalism and Mass Communication History. Funded by a recent gift from the award’s namesake and chaired by Amy Lauters, this award honors both the thesis author and his or her advisor, because we recognize the tremendous work and dedication that mentoring graduate students entails.

PF&R Chair Melita Garza has headed an initiative to reward research that emphasizes diversity. For the upcoming AEJMC research paper competition, we have added an award for the outstanding conference paper submission concerning underrepresented groups in journalism history. For instance, papers may be biographical sketches of minority figures in journalism history; historical analyses of minority-related issues in media coverage, production, or ownership; and/or other related themes. The winning paper will receive a plaque and $100.

Garza has assembled an energetic group of young scholars to assist with diversity and inclusion initiatives this year. They will be working with Gustafson on a project to compile and post resources related to teaching about underrepresented groups in journalism history. Recent email conversations indicate this project may extend into research resources related to minority issues as well.

As online content coordinator for the new Journalism History website, I personally am heading a PF&R project related to free expression: an essay series placing First Amendment issues in historical context. This initiative has resulted in an accidental but happy collaboration with the Law Division, as several of the scholars who submitted essay proposals come from that division. The first installment of the series will run on journalism-history.org in January, with additional essays to follow every month throughout 2019.

Speaking of Journalism History, the journal’s new digital media team has been working hard to generate supplementary content for the journal, which spans across teaching, research, and PF&R. Every week, the site features new content, including bi-monthly podcasts—produced by Vice-Chair Teri Finneman, Second Vice-Chair Will Mari, and division member Nick Hirshon—and essays written by journal authors and me. This content includes discussions on teaching and research, some of which touches on PF&R issues. Social media content curated by Kate Edenborg alerts followers of the journal’s Facebook (Facebook.com/JournalismHistory) and Twitter (@JHistoryJournal) to news and resources related to the three key areas as well.

The division’s leadership team and newly appointed publications committee (chaired by Terry Lueck) spent weeks negotiating a beneficial contract between the division and Taylor & Francis for the publication of Journalism History. The proposed contract received the division membership’s overwhelming support in a recent online vote, and the AEJMC Publications Committee and Board of Directors also support it. Though we can’t call it official until AEJMC Executive Director Jennifer McGill and Taylor & Francis both sign, we are working through final details and are optimistic that this exciting development for our research publication will be completed soon.

Other research outlets for our division include the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference (March 9 at NYU), AEJMC Southeast Colloquium (March 7-9, 2019, in Columbia, SC), and the national convention. The Colloquium’s deadline is Dec. 17; full details are available here. The JJCHC had an early-bird deadline last month but still is accepting submissions until Jan. 5.

Mari just submitted our research paper call for the 2019 national convention to AEJMC headquarters last month; look for it in official AEJMC outlets after the first of the year. Finneman already has finalized a fantastic slate of teaching, research, and PF&R panels for the August conference in Toronto, and she is working tirelessly on other programming to make this conference truly special.

The work of our membership team—consisting of Amber Roessner, Madeleine Liseblad, and Rachel Grant—also has been stellar. Among the membership initiatives is the relaunching of the Generations of Scholars program, in conjunction with our Graduate Student Liaisons Colin Kearney and Bailey Dick. You can see the results of that program so far in Clio.

Finally, we have been focused on improving communications. In addition to the above mentioned journal outlets, we have been reaching out to our members more frequently via listserv, and we have started the new division twitter (@AEJHistory), with which our social media administrator Perry Parks has been doing a fantastic job.

I am proud of what this leadership team has accomplished during our first three months. We look forward to continued work toward our research, teaching, and PF&R goals in 2019.