Professor, Social and Cultural Studies in Education
Department of Educational Leadership, Policy and Technology Studies
Professor
New College
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
- Gender and schooling
- Race, class, gender and the extracurricular
- Cheerleading and sports
INTERESTS
- Social and cultural studies in education
- Girls studies
EDUCATION
- PhD, Curriculum and Instruction, Louisiana State University
- MS, Gifted Education, University of Louisiana-Lafayette
- BS, English Education, Louisiana State University
HONORS
- 2021 National Alumni Association Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award
- College of Arts and Science Distinguished Teaching Fellow 2021-2024
BIOGRAPHY
Natalie Guice Adams is a professor of New College and professor of social and cultural studies in education at The University of Alabama. She is coauthor of Just Trying to Have School: The Struggle for Desegregation in Mississippi, coauthor of Cheerleader!: An American Icon and coeditor of Geographies of Girlhood: Identities In-Between. She has published in Girlhood Studies and Critical Studies of Southern Place.
Her research focuses on the intersection of extracurricular activities in school, gender, race, and sexual identity, and popular culture. Dr. Adams formerly served as the Director of New College and the Assistant Director of UA’s Graduate School. She is serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the David Mathews Center for Civic Life. Dr. Adams has chaired over 20 dissertations and supervised dozens of independent study projects. She coordinates the Levitetz Leadership Program, which annually awards over $80,000 to UA students to develop their research, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills.
Dr. Adams teaches a range of graduate and undergraduate courses, including Social Issues and Ethics, Social Problems-Social Change, Seminar in the Social Foundations of Education, and Church, State, and the American Public School. Dr. Adams’s research on the social and cultural significance of cheerleading in American culture is featured in the highly popular Netflix docuseries Cheer.