Five media historians will receive funding supporting their research related to diversity and media history. The microgrants are sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s History Division and the American Journalism Historians Association. It’s a collaborative effort to stimulate more diversity research in their journals, Journalism History and American Journalism.

“The microgrants program reflects a unified commitment by our journals to support the unearthing and amplification of underrecognized voices and experiences from media history,” said Journalism History’s Editor Perry Parks. “The more of these stories we are able to tell, the richer all of our histories will be.”

Here are this year’s microgrant winners:

Andrew T. Daws is a doctoral candidate in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama. His research primarily focuses on LGBTQ+ publications. His microgrant project expands on his dissertation research on classified advertisements in Southern gay newspapers and how they shaped queer community and identity from the 1980s to early 2000s. The grant will allow him access valuable archival material, offering a broader context of how these ads functioned as sites of community-building and resistance across diverse queer landscapes and cultural contexts.

Michael Fuhlhage is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Wayne State University. He researches newsgathering with a focus on Latinos and Latino immigration and how cultural identity shapes journalists’ perceptions. Fuhlhage’s microgrant project, while building on his previous research on the prehistory of stereotypes about Latinos, represents a new research agenda for him, as he will study how Chicanos pushed back against mainstream media misrepresentation through counter-narratives. His research will focus on how Chicanos told their own stories to their people and mainstream media in the late 20th century.

Takeya Mizuno is a professor in the School of Political Science and Economics at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan. His research centers on the history of Japanese American journalists in Hawai’i and the mainland United States. His microgrant project expands on his current research to examine how the military government began licensing and censorship of the Japanese “enemy language” press in Hawai’i during World War II. By using archival material, he will examine the press licensing system, censorship, and how Japanese newspapers and readers reacted to stringent press control.

Robin Sundaramoorthy is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and American University. Her research focuses on silences, gaps, and omissions; she feels strongly that the people the media leave out are more important than those they include. Her microgrant project will build on her award-winning dissertation, which examined efforts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the 1980s to increase broadcast minority ownership. Her new research will focus on Jo-Al Broadcasting, Inc. and KTOY Radio in Texarkana, Arkansas. Her microgrant will help her conduct oral history interviews.

Wafa Unus is an associate professor of journalism at Fitchburg State University. Her research interests include minority press, local news deserts, and journalism history. She authored A Newsman in the Nixon White House, examining political image-making and journalistic integrity. Unus develops local academic-news partnerships to address news gaps. She is also a columnist for the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise. Her microgrant project is a case study of advocacy and reporting in The Moslem World & The U.S.A., the first monthly journal about Islam in the United States, examining how minority journalism historically united marginalized communities and shaped narratives around intersectional struggles.

“The American Journalism Historians Association and American Journalism are grateful for the opportunity to partner with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s History Division and Journalism History to help fund scholarship that gives voice to and amplifies diverse media histories,” said Amber Roessner, editor for American Journalism. “These undertold narratives can help us reckon with challenging chapters of our history, and they contribute to a more complete, holistic understanding of our past and how it relates to this present moment.”

The microgrant winners have until June 1, 2026, to finish their research and submit an academic journal article to American Journalism or Journalism History for review.

This microgrant program was launched in 2023. Counting this year’s awardees, a total of 14 media history scholars have been helped financially by these grants.