Janice Hume, Department Head and Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair at the University of Georgia, has grounded her research in public memory and how individuals are remembered through obituaries. Uncovering the stories of the past through the people who lived it has also provided numerous opportunities for her students and future historians to “play detective” and uncover stories untold. We talked over the phone on November 13, 2018, chronicling Hume’s path to discovering media history and how she has complemented her research and scholarship in the classroom
How did you come to your area of scholarship?
I took a seminar in media history at the University of Missouri. It was almost an instant connection for me that this is what I wanted to study. The final paper out of this course would become my Master’s Thesis. I examined what qualities defined a heroic woman in the nineteenth century. My dissertation was a cultural studies of obituaries, comparing over 8,000 obituaries in the 1800s and 1900s. In the nineteenth century, I discovered that people were remembered for attributes of character. After the industrial revolution, however, obituaries showed that individuals were remembered for wealth or associations or for wealthy marriages.
What history-based courses have you taught and how does your research inform your teaching?
I currently teach a course in the history of American Mass Media. I have also taught historical methods. In my history of American Mass Media course, every year the class completes a project grounded in primary documents in materials. I ask them to find a primary inspiration document and build a paper around that document.
I also find opportunities to allow my students to connect journalism history with current events. WSB, the local ABC affiliate in Atlanta, recently celebrated their fiftieth anniversary, and my students were tasked to identify the top news stories of a particular decade. Many of their choices were actually selected by the station and were part of their hour-long retrospective!
What advice do you have for junior faculty?
There are lots of grad students interested in media history. It is most important to find topics that you are passionate about. It can take a long amount of time and not knowing what your primary sources are. It’s like a detective story.
Interviewed by Colin Kearney
