Brownell named 2023 recipient of the Lu Ann Aday Award
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Kathryn Cramer Brownell has been selected to receive the 2023 Lu Ann Aday Award, which annually recognizes a Purdue University faculty member who has made a major impact in the humanities and social sciences.
Brownell’s achievement will be recognized on April 22, when Karen Plaut, executive vice president for research, will host the Excellence in Research Awards and Lectures event, 2-5 p.m. in the North Ballroom of Purdue Memorial Union. Brownell also will present a lecture titled “Democracy and Technological Disruption: How the Past is Prologue.” All faculty, staff and students as well as the public are encouraged to attend. Event details and registration information can be found here. The award will be presented at an event in May.
An associate professor of history and director of graduate education for the Department of History, Brownell is recognized internationally as an expert in political history as well as policy and media history. She is the author of two nationally acclaimed books, “Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life,” and therecently published, “24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America.”
“Dr. Brownell’s record reflects important, field-expanding contributions to U.S. political history and modern American history more broadly,” said Margaret O’Mara, the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Chair of American History at the University of Washington, in supporting Brownell’s nomination for the award. “Her scholarship is of the highest quality, rigorous in its research and generative in its interventions; and her public engagement and professional leadership has been extraordinary.”
A Purdue faculty member since 2013, Brownell is co-founder and leader of high-impact projects that are bridging the gap between scholarly and public audiences including the “Made by History” opinion section (previously housed at The Washington Postand now at Timemagazine), which has received over 47 million page views and 36 million unique visitors online. She also leads the biennial American Political History Conference. Currently, she is working on her third book, which looks at the politics of scandal in modern America, as well as a new textbook on the American presidency.
Among many accolades, Brownell received three professional awards in 2022: Purdue’s Trailblazer Award, given to faculty within the Purdue Libraries and the colleges of Liberal Arts and Health and Human Scienceswhose recent pioneering and innovative research has made a significant impact within their disciplines; the Friend of History Award from the Organization of American Historians for historical research and public presentation of American history; and the College of Liberal Arts’ Excellence in Discovery and Creative Endeavors Award, which recognizes the quality, impact, breadth and reach of discovery activities.
“I am thrilled and deeply honored to receive this award,” Brownell said of the Aday honor. “It would not be possible without support from my colleagues at Purdue, especially in the Department of History, the Brian Lamb School of Communication and the Purdue Policy Research Institute. I am also very grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with so many historians across the country to bring rigorous and relevant history to millions of people and make public scholarship a professional priority.”
Brownell adds that she hopes her ongoing work will help the public better navigate modern political and media landscapes that often are designed to distract and divide them.
“At a time in which the study of the past is frequently weaponized to serve various partisan and ideological agendas, I firmly believe that public engagement by scholars is essential to bring insights of empirically grounded historical research to better understand a range of contemporary political challenges and forge enlightened solutions.”
Writer/Media contact: Amy Raley, araley@purdue.edu
Source: Kathryn Brownell, brownell@purdue.edu