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New book details social justice, activism in American journalism history
LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas associate professor of journalism has edited the forthcoming book “Social Justice, Activism and Diversity in U.S. Media History,” which shares unique stories from American journalism and incorporates multimedia to bring history to life for younger generations. Chapters include stories of a civil rights comic book, the 1913 women’s march on Washington, news coverage of the disability rights movement and public relations in the gay rights movement before 1969.
Racial Equity Collaborative will present community forum
LAWRENCE — The Racial Equity Collaborative — co-founded by the Kansas Department for Children and Families, CarePortal and the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare — will host a community forum from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 3 at Kansas City Kansas Community College. Forum guests will discuss the confusion of neglect and poverty, the progress of kinship care in the state of Kansas and how to make meaningful change.
KU Law awards inaugural Bruce Hopkins Award for Nonprofit Excellence
LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas School of Law awarded the first annual Bruce Hopkins Award for Nonprofit Excellence to Kat Girod, a third-year law student from Prairie Village. The award is named for the law school’s first professor of the practice, who died in 2021, known for his prolific writing and expertise in nonprofit law.
Artists Miller & Shellabarger to perform April 28-29 at Spencer Museum of Art
LAWRENCE — This week the Spencer Museum of Art will host Chicago-based artists Miller & Shellabarger (Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger) for a series of public events that explore performance art, queerness and the dynamic of performing as a couple. The free public events are presented in partnership with the Kansas City Art Institute and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
New book details social justice, activism in American journalism history
LAWRENCE — A new book from a University of Kansas professor shares unique stories of social justice, activism and diversity in American journalism history and incorporates multimedia to bring history to life for younger generations.
“Social Justice, Activism and Diversity in U.S. Media History,” edited by Teri Finneman, associate professor of journalism at KU, and Erika Pribanic-Smith, associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Arlington, assembles a diverse group of prominent journalism historians to examine topics that have often been overlooked or dismissed in history.
“All too often, journalism and history tell the same dominant stories over and over again, usually of ‘great man history,’” Finneman wrote in the introduction. “While we cannot share every story, this book introduces readers to a broader scope of journalism history – to rip out the pages of your history books to reexamine the stories you thought you knew and the ones you were never told.”
Finneman, who is also chair of the Journalism History journal and producer of the associated podcast Journalism History, and Pribanic-Smith assembled the book ahead of the journal’s 50th anniversary next year.
The book includes 22 chapters in six focused parts: Generations, race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, disability/mental health, religion and class. The book is also focused on being engaging to Generation Z, today’s journalism students and the next generation of media. Each chapter includes links to podcasts, YouTube videos and suggestions for further reading on the topics covered.
“I’m always looking to get people interested in journalism history, especially Generation Z. We thought it would be a good idea to put a book together focusing on the diversity of journalism history,” Finneman said. “There’s no reason history can’t also be interesting. And you can’t understand the present unless you also understand the past.”
While the book will appeal to young people, Finneman said it also will be of interest to anyone who enjoys reading about American history and the media. And though not a typical textbook, “Social Justice, Activism and Diversity in U.S. Media History” can also be of value in the classroom for use in journalism, public relations, advertising, general history courses and more.
Chapters include stories of a civil rights comic book, the 1913 women’s march on Washington, news coverage of the disability rights movement and public relations in the gay rights movement before 1969.
The book features chapters from a diverse team of scholars and historians from across the country, including Melissa Greene-Blye, assistant professor of journalism at KU, who contributed the chapter “Red Power in Print and Action.” An enrolled citizen of the Miami tribe of Oklahoma, Greene-Blye examines the social justice movement that used civil disobedience to demand change in federal Indian policy and to advocate for the sovereign rights of Native Americans to control their own land and resources.
Recent KU alumni Cami Koons and Bella Koscal served as contributing editors and are credited on the book’s cover. Koons read all the book’s chapters to help ensure they are understandable and relatable to Generation Z, while Koscal managed the book’s multimedia.
“The fact that so much effort, hardship and discrimination in American media history is obscured, repressed or forgotten is tragic and embarrassing. I’d be surprised if any Gen Z-er who reads this book doesn’t find a new historical figure to respect or identify with. I certainly did,” said Sam Kricsfeld, Kansas City Jewish Chronicle editor and another recent KU alumnus.
Published by Routledge, the book releases May 12 but is available for pre-order now.
In addition to chronicling journalism history through the book, journal and podcast, Finneman has overseen dozens of oral histories of newspapers in Middle America, including small newspapers’ experiences in the pandemic. She also is publisher of The Eudora Times, a newspaper produced for the community of Eudora with KU journalism students.
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Contact: Elizabeth Barton, School of Social Welfare, [email protected], @KUSocialWelfare
Racial Equity Collaborative will present community forum
LAWRENCE — The Racial Equity Collaborative will host a community forum from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 3 at Kansas City Kansas Community College. Forum guests will discuss the confusion of neglect and poverty, the progress of kinship care in the state of Kansas and how to make meaningful change.
This community forum will feature special guest Associate Commissioner Aysha Schomburg of the United States Children’s Bureau. Limited registration for the community forum is still available. For more information, please visit the event page.
The Racial Equity Collaborative comprises three founding organizations: The Kansas Department for Children and Families, CarePortal and the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. Together, they successfully gathered over 2,500 Kansans to educate, amplify and support the common goal of reducing the number of Black and Brown children in foster care to achieve racial equity in child welfare. This was accomplished through developing a shared language, hosting learning lectures, engaging stakeholders and other activities since September 2021.
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Contact: Emma Herrman, School of Law, [email protected], @kulawschool
KU Law awards inaugural Bruce Hopkins Award for Nonprofit Excellence
LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas School of Law awarded the first annual Bruce Hopkins Award for Nonprofit Excellence to Kat Girod, a third-year law student from Prairie Village, earlier this month at a ceremony held in the Wheat Law Library, where Hopkins’s prolific publications are available for checkout.
“Receiving the Bruce Hopkins Award for Nonprofit Excellence is an immense honor,” Girod said. “I never had the privilege to meet Professor Hopkins, but after meeting his family and colleagues, I know he was an admirable man. As an educator, he cared deeply for his students and supported them in establishing their careers.”
Hopkins wrote more than 40 books on different aspects of nonprofit law during his more than 50-year legal career. “The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations” has long been considered the definitive source of legal information for nonprofit organizations since its publication in the 1970s.
“Bruce, who served as the law school’s first professor of practice, was the leading expert on nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations in the U.S.,” Dean Stephen Mazza said. “This award reflects two related truths: Bruce’s legal expertise and his commitment to his students.”
Hopkins joined the KU Law faculty in 2008, where he taught courses on nonprofit organizations and the law and mentored countless law students who now practice nationwide. Hopkins practiced for nearly two decades at Polsinelli PC in Kansas City, Missouri, where he helped build a substantial nonprofit law practice group. He earned a Doctor of Juridical Science from KU in 2016 at the age of 72. He died in 2021.
The Bruce Hopkins Award for Nonprofit Excellence was created to continue his legacy and benefit a student who has supported nonprofit organizations and been a voice for the voiceless.
“I have worked with nonprofit organizations in a volunteer or professional capacity since I was in high school,” Girod said. “My work has responded to poverty, immigration, language proficiency, houselessness, domestic violence, early childhood education and postsecondary educational attainment. My work shaped my worldview, my values and my goals. This award is a recognition of the challenging and often thankless tasks so many nonprofit workers do every day.”
“Kat’s record reveals a life devoted to the needs of those who can’t otherwise protect themselves,” Mazza said. “We are deeply grateful to be able to honor Bruce and benefit our students at the same time with this award.”
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Don’t miss new episodes of “When Experts Attack!,”
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https://kansaspublicradio.org/when-experts-attack
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Contact: Elizabeth Kanost, Spencer Museum of Art, 785-864-0142, [email protected], @SpencerMuseum
Artists Miller & Shellabarger to perform April 28-29 at Spencer Museum of Art
LAWRENCE — This week the Spencer Museum of Art will host Chicago-based artists Miller & Shellabarger (Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger) for a series of public events on April 28-29 that explore performance art, queerness and the dynamic of performing as a couple.
Married couple Miller & Shellabarger began “Untitled (Pink Tube)” in 2003 as a public performance where they simultaneously crochet at opposite ends of a long tube of pink yarn. They have agreed that when one of them is no longer able to perform, the other will unravel the tube, which will also be a public performance. Their work addresses the rhythm and quality of human relationships as well as universal human experiences and specific experiences related to queer identity. Miller & Shellabarger will perform “Pink Tube” at the Spencer Museum from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 28, and from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 29.
At 3:30 p.m. April 29, another collaborative duo, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, will join Miller & Shellabarger for a candid conversation about their years of performance work and what it means to perform as couples. Sprinkle and Stephens, artists and life partners known for their commitment to the environment, have collaborated on multimedia projects since 2002. They are authors of the “Ecosex Manifesto” and producers of the award-winning film “Goodbye Gauley Mountain” and the documentary “Water Makes Us Wet.”
“There will be two full days in which audiences can join Miller & Shellabarger at the Spencer Museum to view their performance and engage them in conversation,” said Joey Orr, Spencer Museum curator for research. “Additionally the lively conversation we anticipate between them with Sprinkle and Stephens is an amazing opportunity and not to be missed.”
These events are all free and open to the public. They are presented in partnership with the Kansas City Art Institute and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.
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