Louise Cowan

Who is Louise Cowan?

Louise Cowan born Louise Shillingburg, is a Texas-born critic and teacher, and wife of the late physicist, teacher, and university president Donald Cowan. In the past, she has taught at Texas Christian University and Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. Cowan lives in Dallas, where she continues to teach both at the University of Dallas and the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. She is a prominent figure in Dallas society as a mentor and friend to many Dallas dignitaries and as one of the city's leading intellectuals.

Cowan has been vastly influential in the fostering of the liberal arts, helping shape core curricula for several liberal arts universities. In studies of the American South, she is an influential critic of Faulkner, the Fugitive Group, and other Southern writers. A doctoral student of Donald Davidson at Vanderbilt University, she became a friend to members of the Southern Agrarians, and is considered to be the critical heir to their legacy. Her criticism has influenced many who continue to write about the South. In 1991, she was a recipient of the Frankel Prize. In 2010, she was named on a list of the twenty most brilliant living Christian professors.