Dr. Natalie J. Ring is a cultural, intellectual, and social historian who focuses on the post-Civil War South. She is Professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas and the author/editor of several books. The Problem South: Region, Empire, and the New Liberal State, 1880-1930 (2012) was a finalist for two awards: the Best First Book Award from the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and the TIL Award for Most Significant Scholarly Book from the Texas Institute of Letters. It traces the evolution of the idea of the “southern problem” in the context of U.S. colonialism and explains how national reform efforts to modernize the South contributed to the development of early twentieth-century liberalism. In addition, she is the co-editor of The Folly of Jim Crow: Rethinking the Segregated South (2012); Crime and Punishment in the Jim Crow South (2019); and The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward (2020).
Ring’s scholarship has appeared in a number of journals and edited volumes and she has been invited to present her work to audiences across the United States in both public and academic forums. Her contributions to the historical profession, among many, include appointment as a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians in 2015 and serving as a juror (2019) and juror/chair (2020) for the Pulitzer Prize in History.
Currently she is working on two book manuscripts regarding crime and punishment in Louisiana. The first is a sweeping history of Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola Prison) and the second focuses on the criminal case of Edgar Labat and Alton Clifton Poret in New Orleans who spent almost two decades on death row.
After teaching at Tulane University as a Visiting Assistant Professor for two years she became enamored with the city of New Orleans. She continues to visit regularly and thought it would be enjoyable to write a short book on the Grasshopper Cocktail for the “Iconic New Orleans Cocktails” series with Louisiana State University Press. Stay tuned.
Dr. Ring received a BA in American Studies and a BA in Music from Amherst College as well as an MA and PhD in History from the University of California, San Diego. She lives in Dallas, Texas.
