Southern Methodist University historian Ariel Ron just made some history of his own: He joined the elite club of MacArthur Fellows.

On Tuesday, Ron received a five-year $800,000 “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation. He and 19 others in the U.S. got the foundation’s prestigious fellowship this year. Since 1981, the foundation has named roughly 1,200 fellows.

The annual no-strings-attached fellowships go to scholars, writers, scientists, artists, entrepreneurs and others. The foundation emphasizes “exceptional creativity” when choosing from among nominees. Anonymous hand-selected nominators bring forward fellowship candidates.

Ron specializes in 19th-century U.S. politics and economics. He is an associate professor of history at SMU and director of the university’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies.

SMU said the fellowship recognizes his research exploring how Northern agriculture affected economic growth and expansion of federal power in 19th-century America. No one else from DFW received a MacArthur Fellowship this year.

The fellowship “will certainly help me set aside time to finish the book I’m currently researching and writing,” Ron said in a statement. “I hope people will see the prize as reflecting not only my own scholarship but the work of my wonderful colleagues.”

Fueling the 19th-century economy

Ron’s in-progress book will delve into the largely overlooked role of hay — the primary fuel for horses that powered transportation, agriculture and industry — in the 19th century, SMU said.

The collapse in demand for hay in the 1920s contributed to the agricultural depression that helped fuel the Great Depression, he told Dallas Innovates. He drew a parallel between that period and the 21st-century energy economy.

“Owners of stranded assets will look to make new uses of them rather than suffer losses, so it makes sense to me to pursue an energy transition that cuts emissions by redeploying oil and gas assets — physical, financial and human capital — in new ways,” Ron told Dallas Innovates. “Advanced geothermal seems promising in this regard, but I’m not an expert on its real feasibility.”

Northern farms and the Civil War

Ron’s first book, “Grassroots Leviathan: Agricultural Reform and the Rural North in the Slaveholding Republic,” argues that family farms in the North played a bigger role in antebellum politics and economics than previously recognized, the university said.

Ron’s focus on agricultural production and reform in the antebellum North supplies new insights into the divisions leading up to the Civil War, the university said, and the emergence of government institutions supporting education, research and technology.

“Agricultural development is really central to the larger story of American economic development,” he said in a statement. 

“Northern farmers were extremely well educated, prosperous and interested in science and technology,” Ron said. “As a result, they increasingly demanded services from the federal government, which clashed with the interests of slaveholders concerned about federal intervention in slavery. That clash between agricultural development in the North and South played an important role in the lead-up to the Civil War.”

Ron joined SMU’s Department of History in 2016 and became director of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies in 2024.

A case for public R&D funding

The professor called public research and development funding, including money for agriculture, one of America’s greatest longtime strengths.

“In agriculture, the trend for many years now has been a reduction in federal support for R&D, even as other countries such as Brazil and China increase their public investments,” Ron told Dallas Innovates.

“The private sector has increased R&D investments,” he said. “But there is always a distinct need for the government to pursue the kind of research that may not necessarily pay off immediately, whether that’s for blue-sky-type technologies or for the health, education and general well-being of the people.”