Award for Excellence
Each year the Symposium recognizes excellence in scholarship and research in the field of Journalism History.
Scholars Recognized for Excellence at 2023 Symposium
Those receiving Excellence in Paper Presentation for 2023 include:
Stephen Banning, Bradley University
“Journalists Drink from Skulls Amid Ghoulish Relics in a Nineteenth Century Chicago House of Horrors.”
A well-written and engaging study of the Bohemian Chicago Press Club.
John Navin, Coastal Carolina University
“Premature Burials: Free Lovers, Feminists, Spiritualists, and the Antebellum Press”
Recognized for depth of scholarship and quality of writing, a fascinating examination of 19th century spiritualism and mores.
Thomas Terry, Utah State University
“From the Egyptian Darkness of Bondage: A San Francisco Black Newspaper and its Civil War Agenda in 1862-1863”
A well-structured and executed study of a little known African American newspaper, published in a part of the United States that often gets overlooked in Civil War studies.
Special Announcement
Sachsman Family Award Established
At the conclusion of the awards ceremony for the 31st annual Symposium on the Nineteenth Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression, the presenters and attendees on hand in Augusta and those joining via the webinar format were honored by the presence of the Sachsman Family for a very special announcement.
Speaking on behalf of her mother, Judy, and brother Jonathan, David’s daughter Susanne announced the establishment of a new award in her father’s honor.
“It’s an award for excellence in order to support student scholarship and research,” said Susanne. “My father felt that this was critical to the future of the Symposium and the field, and to the future of academics as a whole.”
Susanne went on to highlight the conference’s rich tradition of encouraging submissions by students.
“The Symposium has a long history, as you all know, of student participation and of developing those students into scholars who, in turn, become leaders in journalism and history and other academic pursuits.
Beginning next year for the conference’s 32nd anniversary, the Symposium will be inviting, peer reviewing, and recognizing outstanding student submissions with the goal of building and maintaining the ranks of journalism, history, and scholarships. And we encourage your students to actively participate. It’s a great way to honor my father.”
Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award
Named in honor of Dr. Hazel Dicken-Garcia, the award recognizes distinguished scholarship in the fields of Journalism and Civil War History.
A professor emerita of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota, she remains recognized as one of the foremost authorities in the field of journalism studies and served the university as a dedicated teacher and mentor for more than thirty years.
A 1961 graduate of Berea College (KY), she received a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1969 and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1977. Her book, Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth Century America (1989) has been widely cited and celebrated as an authoritative study of the evolution of ethics in journalism. In addition, she co-authored two other books, Communication History (1980) and Hated Ideas and the American Civil War Press (2007).
Dr. Dicken-Garcia retired from full-time teaching at the University of Minnesota in 2008 with the rank of full professor and remained dedicated to supervising doctoral dissertations until 2011.
She was deeply involved in the annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, where she served as president of the steering committee for more than a decade. The symposium honors a journalism historian each year with the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award for Distinguished Scholarship. (Dr. Dicken-Garcia was the first winner of the award, which subsequently was named in her honor.) She and her students have presented numerous papers that have become chapters in the books published from the symposium.
Dr. Dicken-Garcia passed away at the age of 79 in 2018, but her dedication and standards of excellence remain guiding elements of the Symposium as it continues into its third decade.
Past Winners of the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award
2007 David Mindich, St. Michael’s College
2009 Ford Risley, Pennsylvania State University
2010 Donald Shaw, University of North Carolina
2011 W. Joseph Campbell, American University
2012 Gregory Borchard, University of Nevada Las Vegas
2015 Harold Holzer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
2016 Brian Gabrial, Concordia University
2017 David Sachsman, University of Tennessee Chattanooga
2019 Bill Huntzicker, Independent Scholar and Dr. Katrina J. Quinn, Slippery Rock University
2020 David W. Bulla, Augusta University
