S2E14 Susannah Ural - University of Southern Mississippi

Our guest today is the absolutely delightful Susannah Ural! Susannah J. Ural is a professor of history and co-director of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. She also directs USM’s Center for Digital Humanities. Susannah was previously the Charles W. Moorman Distinguished Alumni Professor of the Humanities at USM and the Blount Professor of Military History at the Dale Center. Before coming to USM, Susannah was an associate professor at Sam Houston State University. She earned her BA in History and Political Science at the University of Vermont and her MA and PhD in History at Kansas State University.

Susannah is a prolific scholar of the American Civil War. Her books include Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy's Most Celebrated Unit (Louisiana State University Press); Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades: Soldiers and Families in America’s Civil War (Osprey); The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865 (NYU Press). She also edited a collection of essays titled Civil War Citizens: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in America’s Bloodiest Conflict (NYU Press), and her work has been published in the Journal of Military History, The Journal of the Civil War Era, and America’s Civil War.

Susannah was awarded the Mississippi Historical Society’s Merit Award for her work on the Beauvoir Veteran Project and the Edwin H. Simmons Award for service to the Society for Military History. In addition, she has received teaching awards from Kansas State, Sam Houston State, and USM. Susannah has been a member of the Society for Military History’s Board of Trustees since 2019. She is the former chair of the Editorial Board at The Journal of Military History and currently serves on the Editorial Board of The Journal of the Civil War Era. Her digital history work includes the fascinating Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi Project. We could go on, but the point is that Susannah Ural is in the know when it comes to the Civil War.

We'll discuss why unit history is important, the use of digital history, Brett Favre and his current woes, quiet-time near the deer feeder in the backyard, and, of course, BBQ. Join us for a fun and interesting chat with Susannah Ural! Shout-outs to Lucky Rabbit fleamarket in Hattiesburg and Adams Nursery and Garden Center in Petal, Mississippi! And follow Susannah on Twitter @susannahjural!

Rec.: 09/23/2022