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.