AAPSS Fellow Kathleen Hall Jamieson–the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and the Walter and Leonore Director of the university’s Annenberg Public Policy Center–was awarded the 2021 Franklin Founder Award on January 15 at the annual Benjamin Franklin birthday celebration in Philadelphia, PA.
The Celebration! of Benjamin Franklin, Founder organization sponsors a celebration every year on Franklin’s birthday that highlights a theme connecting his work to current social issues and concerns. This year’s theme was “The Disintegration of Trust: Restoring Confidence in American Institutions.” After a panel discussion of the topic, Jamieson gave her keynote speech, entitled “How Resilient Are Democratic Institutions?” This is a theme that she had explored in an op-ed piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer a few days before the online event, declaring that American democracy remains intact thanks to our courts, free press, and right to assembly.
Jamieson has authored or co-authored 16 books, most recently Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President (Oxford University Press), which won the 2019 R.R. Hawkins Award from the Association of American Publishers. She is the co-founder of FactCheck.org, and she recently coedited The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication and The Oxford Handbook of the Science of Science Communication.
