Kathleen Wickham

Kathleen W. Wickham is a professor of journalism in the School of Journalism & New Media at the University of Mississippi. Her edited book, James Meredith: Breaking the Barrier, served as the commemorative book for the university’s 60^th anniversary events marking Meredith’s integration of the university. She is also the author of We Believed We Were Immortal: Twelve Reporters Who Covered the 1962 Integration Crisis at Ole Miss (2017). In 2022 she was awarded the Ronald T. and Gayla D. Farrar Award in Media & Civil Rights History, for the publication of “The Magnifying Effect of Television News: Civil Rights Coverage and Eyes on the Prize,” published in American Journalism. Her significant campus projects included having the UM campus named a national historic site in journalism by  the Society of Professional Journalists in honor of the 300-plus reporters who covered Meredith’s enrollment and the dedication of a memorial bench honoring Agence France-Press reporter Paul Guihard, killed during the subsequent riot. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Wickham worked as a reporter for 10 years in her native New Jersey, ending her reporting career as the Atlantic City bureau chief for the Newark Star-Ledger. For the last 15 years she has served as a judge for the National Headliner Journalism Awards, one of the nation’s oldest journalist contests with categories across all media platforms.