Duke Professional News: January 31, 2003

Duke assistant professor of history Elizabeth Fenn was a joint winner of the Longman-History Today Book of the Year award for her book Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic 1775-82 (Hill and Wang).

The book shows that during the Revolutionary War Americans were fighting both against the British and against the virus that causes smallpox. It also describes the devastating effect of the virus on Native American populations in the American West.

In announcing the prize, judges praised Fenn's "vivid and highly accessible prose." The award is given by Longman publishers and History Today, a British monthly magazine, for an author's first or second book that "contributed significantly to making its subject accessible and rewarding to the general reader of history (and) displays innovative research and interpretation in its field."

Fenn shares the award with Margo Todd, author of The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (Yale University Press).

For more information about Fenn, see http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/human/fenn-kl.html

The staff of the Herald-Sun newspaper in Durham has been named this year's winner of The Green-Rossiter Award, given in recognition of outstanding newspaper coverage of higher education in North Carolina.

Duke has sponsored this award for North Carolina newspaper journalists since the early 1970s. The judges for the award are journalists outside of North Carolina.

The Herald-Sun was honored for several stories, including a series of articles by reporter Eric Ferreri about last summer's controversial reading choice -- a book about the Quran -- for incoming students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Another story by Ferreri examined how college professors use Web tools to determine if student papers have been plagiarized. A third story, by reporter Jim Shamp, looked at a Duke program that trains nurses to provide faith-based medical and spiritual care. Also, a two-part series by reporter Angela Forest focused on residents near North Carolina Central University who were being forced to sell their homes to make way for university expansion. The Herald-Sun's entry also included a historical profile, written by Ferreri, of Horace Williams, the founder of UNC's philosophy department who left more than a dozen pieces of property to the university after his death. UNC officials envision turning one 900-acre tract off Airport Road in Chapel Hill into a high-tech center where public university research mixes with private business.

The judges praised the Herald-Sun's package, citing 'excellent stories that show a commitment to outstanding reporting of both breaking news and enterprise stories.'

Reporters Dan Kane, Tim Simmons, Jane Stancill and Trish Wilson of The News & Observer of Raleigh placed second for several stories focusing on how state budget and governance issues are affecting the University of North Carolina system.

Michelle Johnson of the Winston-Salem Journal finished third for stories about the president of Salem College, women far outnumbering men at Winston-Salem State University and sacrifices made by low- and middle-income families to send their children to college.

The Green-Rossiter Award honors the contributions of William Green, who served as Duke's director of university relations and later as university vice president during Terry Sanford's presidency at Duke, and Al Rossiter Jr., who retired in 2001 after serving 10 years as director of the Duke News Service.

Yonat Shimron of The News & Observer in Raleigh and Fran Arrington of the Bertie Ledger-Advance have been named winners of the annual Duke Divinity School Awards for Excellence in Religion Reporting.

The awards, one each for daily newspapers and community newspapers, were given in conjunction with the North Carolina Press Association's 2002 News, Editorial and Photojournalism Contest.

The Duke awards honor "outstanding coverage of issues of religion, faith and/or spirituality and the clarity of explanation to a secular audience through editorials, news or feature articles, photos or cartoons." Judging was by news professionals outside of North Carolina.

The judges praised Shimron's "eye for important trends and an ear for bringing diverse voices to life."

Of Arrington's entry, the judges wrote, "it is rare to find a community newspaper -- with a writer like Fran Arrington -- which does such a good job of chronicling [religious] events in the life of an entire county."