Ruth Pritchard Dawson

Ruth Dawson is Professor Emerita in Women's Studies at the University of Hawaii's flagship research campus and Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies of the University of London (United Kingdom). Her most recent book is Catherine the Great and the Culture of Celebrity in the Eighteenth Century.

She studied at the Free University of Berlin and the College of Wooster (Ohio) and earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan. She has worked extensively on the eighteenth century, ranging from the travels of Captain Cook to the author of the Munchausen Tales and the writings of eighteenth-century German women. She has conducted research in libraries, archives, and galleries from St. Petersburg to Vienna and Paris to Copenhagen. She lives in Honolulu with long annual stays in London.