CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 2026 JOINT JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION HISTORY CONFERENCE

The Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference – co-sponsored by the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication – is accepting submissions for its 2026 conference, which will be held in person on March 27, 2026 in New York City.

Deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30th, 2026

This one-day, interdisciplinary conference welcomes faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars researching the history of journalism and mass communication, including advertising and public relations. Topics from all geographic areas and time periods are welcome, as are all methodologies. The joint conference offers a welcoming environment in which participants can explore new ideas, garner feedback on their work, and meet colleagues from around the world interested in mass communication history.

When: Friday, March 27, 2026, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern (U.S.) Time

Where: Columbia University, 116th and Broadway, New York, NY 10027

Registration fee: $100, including boxed lunch. Free to graduate students, with optional boxed lunch for $30.

Proposals for paper presentations, research-in-progress presentations, or panels are all welcome. Your proposal should detail your presentation topic and offer a compelling rationale for why the research would interest an interdisciplinary community of scholars.

Papers are completed research studies and should be no more than 25 pages, not including notes. The paper should be attached to the submission (as a PDF or Microsoft Word document), and include an abstract of up to 500 words.
Research-in-Progress (RIP) proposals are projects currently underway and that could benefit from collegial feedback. An RIP submission .is an abstract of up to 500 words.
Panels are pre-constituted presentations from multiple scholars working on similar topics or using similar methodological approaches. Panels generally consist of three to four scholars. To submit a panel proposal, please include an overview of the panel along with abstracts for each of the individual projects/presentations. The overview and the individual abstracts may each be up to 500 words.

Submissions should be emailed to jjchc.submissions@gmail.com.

Please remove any identifying information from your paper or abstract, and attach it to your email as a PDF or Microsoft Word document. In the body of your email, please include your name, preferred email address, institutional affiliation, and title/rank (if applicable). If you are submitting a panel proposal, please include that information for all panel participants.

Authors will be notified about the status of their proposals by mid-February.

Please direct questions to one of the conference co-chairs:

Carolina Velloso, cvelloso@umn.edu

Robin Sundaramoorthy, ros325@lehigh.edu

Autumn Linford, all0093@auburn.edu

Paper Call: Journalism History – 2025-26 Essay Competition

The colonial-era US printer Benjamin Franklin is credited with responding to a question about what the Constitutional Convention of 1787 had produced by saying, “A republic – if you can keep it.”¹ The convention was the United States’ second attempt to form a national government after its revolutionary break from Britain – a break that was codified by the signatures of Franklin and fifty-five fellow delegates on July 4, 1776.

Of course, Franklin and his contemporaries’ vision of a democratic republic for propertied white men was significantly narrower than what most people in the US conceive today. That original vision of representative democracy was transformed by President Abraham Lincoln’s rhetorical reframing during the Civil War and subsequent constitutional amendments granting citizenship and basic rights to formerly enslaved people.² The vision was further expanded by the nineteenth amendment granting women the vote in the early twentieth century and by the civil rights laws of the 1960s that added enforcement mechanisms to the amendments passed a hundred years earlier. By the turn of this century, many US institutions had, at least rhetorically, embraced the notion of working toward a truly pluralistic multiracial democracy.

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A Word from the Chair: September 2025

Brian Creech

First off, thanks to all of you for an engaging and successful annual conference in San Francisco. Thanks to everyone who attended, who reviewed, who submitted, who volunteered to organize a panel, and who served in some capacity to the division throughout the year. So many smiles, so many great conversations, and so much learning. It has been a great year, and a lot of that is due to engagement from membership across the division.

As I type out this final column, I am reminded that the work of the division continues year-round. Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen is set to take over leadership and has a many great initiatives planned, as well as a leadership team squarely focused on the important role history plays in the discipline and the value of our members within AEJMC. This is a team with great ideas for the growth of the discipline and the value of membership, and I think we all will benefit from their tenure.

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Panel Proposals for AEJMC 2026 Due Oct. 3

Panel proposals for the 2026 AEJMC conference are due to the History Division Friday, Oct. 3, and the submission form is now open.

Division members are encouraged to develop panel proposals that thoughtfully engage historical topics on several fronts, including research, teaching, and professional freedom and responsibility (PF&R). Strong panel proposals should include a diverse representation of scholars and media professionals, not just in terms of race, ethnicity and gender, but also career stage, type of institution, and research approach.

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Plan Your AEJMC Conference with the History Division Schedule

Click here to download the History Division’s schedule for the AEJMC 108th Annual Conference in San Francisco, California. Regular conference events run Aug. 7-10, 2025, with pre-conference events set for Aug. 6.

Note that the History Division Awards Gala will be held Aug. 6 from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. This gathering recognizes our top award winners of the year and celebrates the importance of journalism history. Pre-registration is required.

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A Word from the Chair: July 2025

Dr. Brian Creech

Colleagues, I hope your summers have been restful and regenerative. It is hard to believe that we are just weeks away from the annual conference in San Francisco. There is a spectacular history program planned, and all my gratitude to Caitlin Cieslick-Miskimen (Idaho) and Jason Guthrie (Clayton State) for the tireless work they’ve put into this program over the past several months. The state of the division is strong, thanks in no small part to the service of this leadership team and the exceptional quality of contributions to research, teaching, and PF&R demonstrated across the program.

As you finalize your schedule for the conference, please make plans to join us for the Division’s awards gala on Wednesday, August 6, at 7: 30 p.m. to mingle and to celebrate this year’s award winners. We will also take time to commemorate and honor the memory of our dear friend and former Journalism History editor Pam Perry. The fellowship of the gala is one my favorite parts of AEJMC, and it sets a great tone of community and connection felt during the rest of the conference.

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Member Q+A: Josie Vine

Name: Josie Vine, Ph.D.

University Affiliation: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Position: Senior Lecturer, School of Media & Communication, Journalism Program

Dr. Josie Vine

1. In her book, Thinking About History, historian Sarah Maza describes history as a multifaceted concept, and one of the definitions she provides is that history is “what the present needs to know about the past.” How do you define history?

I think I would define history as the stories we remember and tell each other, which, in an allegorical sense, guide our collective values and beliefs, norms and practices. But we can also question and interrogate these stories—look for other interpretations of the same event—so we can question and interrogate the appropriateness of our own ways of seeing and ways-of-doing.

This then means that we each have a duty to record and reflect upon current events, so they evolve into the history of the future.

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A Word from the Graduate Student Liaison

Graduate Students: Welcome!

Looking over the History Division report for this year, one statistic stands out: fourteen graduate students will present at AEJMC 2025 in San Francisco, a significant increase in participation from emerging scholars. I cannot think of a better time to welcome new thinkers to the crucial work of history than in this precarious moment for higher education, mass communication, and democracy. So, to our new (and returning) graduate student members: Welcome! We’re particularly glad you’re here.

Lexie Little

This summer, I’ve reflected on my time as a student and experiences with AEJMC following recent admission to doctoral candidacy. (Sort of without a choice), Dr. Amber Roessner took on an ambitious twenty-something as a mentee when I blew into her Journalism as Literature course at the University of Tennessee nearly a decade ago. She quickly perceived my interest in historical research and continuing my studies at some point in my career, encouraging my decision to apply for graduate programs. Her first piece of advice: go work with this year’s Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar Award winner Dr. Janice Hume. An important second piece of advice: check out the History Division of AEJMC.

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History Division Mentorship Program – Deadline June 15

The AEJMC History Division is pleased to once again offer its mentorship program this year and we’re seeking participants. Prior mentors and mentees have found the program highly beneficial, with many choosing to continue their relationships informally after their year has ended. The program is very loosely structured. It’s up to the mentee and mentor to determine what works best for them.

If you’re looking for help with your teaching (ex: assignment ideas, classroom management tips, prepping a new class), research (ex: what journals/conferences to target, feedback on a potential journal/conference submission), or career (ex: tenure & promotion, searching for jobs, work/life balance), sign up as a mentee. Whether you’re a grad student, assistant professor, associate professor, or other, our division’s mentorship program is open to you.

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Palmer (University of Wisconsin) Wins 2025 Covert Award

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) congratulates Dr. Lindsay Palmer (University of Wisconsin-Madison) as winner of the annual Covert Award for best mass communication history article, essay, or book chapter published in the previous year.

The award memorializes Dr. Catherine L. Covert (right), professor of journalism at Syracuse University, the first woman professor in Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Journalism and the first woman to head the AEJMC History Division, in 1975.
Dr. Covert died in 1983. The award has been presented annually since 1985.

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