Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Prize

About this program

The American Journalism Historians Association offers the Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Prize annually for the best doctoral dissertation on mass communication history, with a $500 honorarium for the winner and $200 for each honorable mention. Eligible dissertations must be written in English, use quantitative or qualitative historical methods, and be completed, defended, revised, and filed in final form between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Applicants must submit by March 1, 2027, a cover letter, nomination letter from the dissertation chair or department chair, an anonymized PDF containing a 200-word abstract, table of contents, and one chapter, and a separate anonymized PDF of the complete dissertation; nominees must be willing to attend and present at the 2027 AJHA convention.