Associate Professor Yong Volz honored with the Jordan Hoyt Tribute to Women award
Associate Professor Yong Volz was selected to receive the Jordan Hoyt Tribute to Women award in recognition of her efforts to help create an environment of equity, fairness and justice for women on the Mizzou campus. From left, graduate student Lei Guo, Associate Professor Amy Simons, Volz.
The annual award recognizes outstanding MU faculty, staff and students who help create an environment of equity, fairness and justice for women on campus.
Columbia, Mo. (March 31, 2020) — Missouri School of Journalism Associate Professor Yong Volz was selected to receive the Jordan Hoyt Tribute to Women award. The annual award is sponsored by the University of Missouri Chancellor‘s committee on the Status of MU Women.
The Tribute to Women Award recognizes outstanding MU faculty, staff and students who work to create an environment of equity, fairness and justice for women on campus, have demonstrated respect for the diversity of women’s experiences, and helped promote the advancement of women through education and advocacy.
Associate Professor Amy Simons supported Dr. Volz in a letter to the selection committee. She wrote that “I have benefited from her mentorship in ways I never could have expected. Quick check-ins turn into long talks, with my personal and professional development always top of her mind.”
Simons goes on to write that through her work in the classroom, the conference room, the committee room – and beyond – Dr. Volz “labors to honor the experience of the women amongst us, and to enhance that experience where and whenever possible.”
Another nominator, graduate student Lei Guo, wrote how Dr. Volz is a person “deeply committed to creating an equal and fair environment to help her students’ academic and professional growth. I, as well as many other students in our program, receive constant support from Dr. Volz by her extraordinary effort helping us to recognize our strengths and develop profound knowledge and competency in journalism practice, research and teaching.”
Volz has been teaching at the Missouri School of Journalism for 15 years. She is the School’s Roger Gafke Faculty Fellow and chair of the Journalism Studies faculty.
As a researcher, Volz’s study centers on journalists and their place in society and history. Her published work addresses the elite formation of U.S. foreign correspondents, gender disparities among Pulitzer Prize winners, American women journalists in the post-feminist era, and the first generation of Chinese women journalists in the early twentieth century, among other topics.
Born in Beijing and raised in Shanghai, Volz received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Renmin University of China. She also received a master’s degree in communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a doctoral degree in mass communication with a minor in history from the University of Minnesota.
The Status of Women Committee was established in 1973 to address issues of discrimination in the University on the basis of gender. Volz is the fourth member of the Journalism School to receive this recognition. Past Journalism School recipients include Associate Professor Amy Simons in 2016, graduate student Stevie Mathieu in 2011, and Martha Pickens, executive assistant, in 2004.
Updated: November 11, 2020