The three 2021 Award Selection Committees of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric delight in sharing the outcome of their deliberations and in inviting you to attend the ASHR Business Meeting on Saturday, November 20, from 11-12:15, in Issaquah AB (third floor), to celebrate the winners.
Outstanding Mentor Award
Prof. Andre E. Johnson, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Memphis, has been chosen as the inaugural recipient of the ASHR Outstanding Mentor Award. The selection committee praised Prof. Johnson’s record of engaged and proactive mentoring, noting how he extends his mentorship to students and colleagues even before they recognize their own need and staying with them for the long haul. The committee noted the broad and positive effects that Prof. Johnson’s mentoring has had on the study of rhetorical history, even at this relatively early stage in his career. Prof. Johnson’s mentorship has already and will continue to promote research on histories of rhetoric that have been previously neglected. Prof. Johnson himself is a catalyzing figure, attracting diverse voices to ASHR and to rhetorical studies more broadly. Agreeing with nominators who wrote, “Truly, his students, colleagues, and community are better because of his dedication and talents,” the selection committee is pleased to honor Prof. Johnson and recognize the community that he creates and sustains through his mentoring.
Outstanding Dissertation Award
Dr. Florianne “Bo” Jimenez, author of ““Echoing and Resistant Imagining: Filipino Student Writing Under American Colonization,” has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 American Society for the History of Rhetoric Outstanding Dissertation Award, which honors a dissertation of especial significance to the Society’s mission defended in the past year. The selection committee was particularly impressed with Dr. Jimenez’s treatment of an era of US colonialism rarely discussed in the discipline of Rhetoric, as well as the nuanced integration of texts, critical theory, and methodological choices. (Several committee members noted that they found themselves so engaged that they wanted to read the entire dissertation.) The dissertation was completed under the directorship of Dr. Rebecca Lorimer Leonard, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Jimenez is now Assistant Professor of English and Co-Director of the Writing Center at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Honorable Mention went to Dr. Misti Yang for “Code Me a Good Reason: Joseph Weizenbaum and the Rhetoric of AI.” Dr. Yang is currently a Mellon Assistant Professor of the Public Communication of Science and Technology at Vanderbilt, having defended in August 2021 under the directorship of Dr. Damien Smith Pfister, in the department of Communication at the University of Maryland.
Outstanding Student Paper Award
Jennifer Woolley, a PhD student at Ohio University, is being recognized for “Complicating Culpability: Planned Parenthood’s Historical Apologia on Margaret Sanger.” The selection committee was particularly impressed with how her analysis of apologia in Planned Parenthood’s centennial discourse can help rhetoricians understand the obligations involved in addressing our own institutions’ problematic pasts. If you are attending NCA, you will be able to hear this paper on Thursday, November 18, on the 2-3:15pm panel in Issaquah AB (third floor).
Honorable Mention went to Caroline Koons, PhD candidate in Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State University, for “Parrhesiac Voice: Freedom Riders, Singing Dissent, and Parchman Prison”
ASHR Steering Committee member Dr. Christa Olson chaired the Outstanding Mentor and Outstanding Student Paper selection committees. Thanks to Dr. Derek Handley, Dr. Melba Vélez Ortiz, and Dr. Mary Stuckey for serving on the former, and Dr. Ira Allen, Dr. Ben Crosby, and Dr. Miriam Fernández for serving on the latter. ASHR Steering Committee member Dr. Jamie Downing chaired the Outstanding Dissertation committee. Thanks to Dr. Nicole Allen, Dr. René De los Santos, and Dr. Elizabeth Miller for serving on that committee.
Congratulations to the winners and to those nominated. Gratitude to everyone who wrote nomination materials.