Rakow paper receives academic award

A paper written by Professor Emerita in Communication Lana Rakow about a pioneering American philosopher and educational reformer has been selected for a top award by an academic association in the field of communication.

Rakow will present “Who uses Dewey and Why? Remembering and Forgetting John Dewey in Communication Studies,” about John Dewey, an advocate for participatory democracy through communication, at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Thursday, Aug. 4, in Minneapolis.

The paper, which represents Rakow’s ongoing research for a book about Dewey (1859-1952) and his connection to communication, was chosen for the James E. Murphy Memorial Award as the Top Faculty Paper by AEJMC’s Cultural and Critical Studies Division.

The book is under contract with Peter Lang publishing.

The award has been presented annually by the division since 1985 in recognition of the important historical and critical scholarship of James Murphy.

AEJMC was founded in 1912 and now has over 3,700 members from 51 countries. It is the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrations at the college level.