Philip Merrill College of Journalism | University of Maryland

Journalism Professor Maurine Beasley Receives National 'Senior Scholar Award'

Honor comes on heels of Fulbright

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The American Association of University Women Educational Foundation selected Dr. Maurine Hoffman Beasley , a University of Maryland journalism professor, as the winner of its 1999 Founders Distinguished Senior Scholar Award.

In announcing the award, AAUW noted that it recognized "a lifetime of outstanding college and university teaching, your impressive publication record and the impact you have had on women in your profession and community."

The AAUW award, with a $1,000 prize, marks the second major honor for Beasley in 1999. She has been approved for a Fulbright Scholarship that will take her to Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, during the spring 2000 semester.,

She received the AAUW award at an Educational Foundation leadership conference dinner in Washington, D.C., on June 22.

"She became the first woman to be tenured here," wrote Reese Cleghorn, dean of the College of Journalism, in nominating Dr. Beasley, "and she was the first woman to become a full professor on a faculty of 21 that is now more than a third female. I am pleased that this award stresses teaching excellence as well as scholarship and service. Dr. Beasley is truly a caring and dedicated teacher, nominated by her students and former student for honors on a number of occasions."

Beasley, a former Washington Post and Kansas City Star reporter, was 1993-94 president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has served as president of the American Journalism Historians Association and president of the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and received the SPJ chapter's Distinguished Service Award in 1994.

Books and articles written by Beasley have focused on a documentary history of women in journalism and the news media and on the pioneering efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt. Beasley is co-editor with Holly Shulman of a 600-page manuscript, The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia, to be published in 2000. Her 1988 book, The New Majority, was among the first efforts to explore the trend of gender changes among journalism students and professionals, and its implications.

Beasley holds a Ph.D. in American civilization from George Washington University, an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University and undergraduate degrees in history and journalism from the University of Missouri. She is a native of Missouri and became an assistant professor at Maryland in 1975 after one year as a journalism lecturer. In 1993, she won the university's "Outstanding Woman Award," the same year she co-authored a book, "Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism."

She is a member of the Board of Editorial Advisors of American Journalism Review, the national monthly magazine published by the University of Maryland's College of Journalism.

--Contact: Frank Quine, College of Journalism (301-405-2394)