07/17/96

Contact: Sandra Sleight-Brennan, Ohio University, 614/593-4857

ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University faculty member Sandra Sleight-Brennan's four-part documentary series on women's history has added two awards to its list of honors.

The series, titled "America's Women: A Legacy of Change," won a Silver World Medal for History at the International Radio Festival of New York. The series also was awarded first place in Public Affairs and Special News Programs by the Ohio Educational Telecommunications Network Commission. Both honors were awarded in June.

Sleight-Brennan, assistant professor of telecommunications, produced "America's Women" in conjunction with the Ohio University Telecommunications Center. Doug Partusch, radio producer in the Telecommunications Center, served as associate producer and engineer on the project.

Earlier this year, "America's Women" won a first place award for best radio documentary series in the large market category in the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television's 21st Annual Commendation Awards, and first place in the "Documentary-Audio" category in the Broadcast Education Association's 1996 Juried Faculty Production Competition.

"America's Women" was released in the fall to commemorate the 75th anniversary in November of the first national election in which American women were allowed to vote. The series aired on more than 30 public radio stations across the country from mid-November until March, which is national Women's History Month.

The series takes an in-depth look at how women's roles have changed, weaving together personal interviews, historic sound clips, music from different decades and comments from historians. Each half-hour program deals with a different era of women's history starting with the pre-19th Amendment suffragist movement and continuing through today.

The series was funded in part by grants from the Ohio Humanities Council, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Ohio University Research Fund.