Louise Cowan
Professor of English, University of Dallas
Dr. Cowan received her Ph.D. in 1953 from Vanderbilt University. She served for many years as the Graduate Dean and chairman of the English Department at the University of Dallas, and as Director of its Institute of Philosophic Studies. With her husband, Dr. Donald Cowan, she pioneered the University’s lauded core curriculum based on classic texts. She is a Founding Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and professorships, including the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Charles Frankel Prize for her work in advancing the study of the humanities. Dr. Cowan’s publications include The Fugitive Group (LSU Press, 1959), The Southern Critics (University of Dallas Press, 1971), The Terrain of Comedy, ed. (Dallas Institute, 1984), Teaching the Teachers (1986), The Epic Cosmos, ed. with Larry Allums (Dallas Institute, 1992), Classic Texts and the Nature of Authority, ed. with Donald Cowan (Dallas Institute, 1993), and, most recently, Invitation to the Classics (Baker Book House, 1998), ed. with Os Guinness. In addition, she has published numerous articles on Faulkner, Coleridge, Homer, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, and others.
