July 15, 2016
Folkerts to receive lifetime achievement award
Submitted by Division of Communications and Marketing
Jean Folkerts, visiting professor and scholar at the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, will receive the 2016 Sidney Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism History by The American Journalism Historians Association.
The award is given to individuals with an exemplary record of sustained achievement in journalism history, through research, teaching and professional activities. The association will formally present Folkerts the award at the association's annual conference Oct. 6-8 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
"Folkerts' book, 'Voices of A Nation: A History of Mass Media in the United States,' on which she is lead author, has been perhaps the most popular and substantial textbook in the field for 25 years," said David Nord, professor emeritus of journalism at Indiana University and previous awardee. "Thousands of students have learned the history of American journalism from it."
"I want to thank my students from across the years… whose questions stimulated new research ideas," Folkerts said. "Their accomplishments continue to motivate me. I commend the extraordinary efforts of AJHA to enhance journalism history teaching and research. I know the work of this group will continue to inspire generations of journalism history teachers and scholars."
Folkerts also is a Kansas State University alumna with bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism with concentrations in English and sociology. She received a master's of philosophy degree and doctoral degree in American studies from the University of Kansas.
The award's namesake, Sidney Kobre, was a journalist, professor and author.