Office: 212M Spotts World Culture Building
Email: aaron.cowan@sru.edu
Phone: (724) 738-2409
Fax: (724) 738-4762
Spring 2013 Semester Office Hours:
Monday, Wednesday & Friday
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Thursday
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Dr. Cowan received his B.A. from King College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. His research interests focus on modern U.S. history, urban history, and public history. His dissertation "A Nice Place to Visit: Tourism, Urban Revitalization, and the Transformation of Postwar American Cities" received the Ohio Academy of History's Best Dissertation Award in 2008, and is currently under revision for publication.
In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Cowan also serves as curator of the Old Stone House, a reconstructed 1822 stagecoach tavern museum owned by SRU. The Stone House is staffed by SRU students and is open for tours from May - October, and also hosts a number of historically-themed public events. More information is available at http://oldstonehousepa.org/.
Dr. Cowan lives in the boro of Slippery Rock with his wife and two children. In his free time, he enjoys reading, listening to music, gardening, tennis, good beer and coffee, and managing his fantasy baseball team to championship glory. It's a good life.
Courses taught
Undergraduate
HIST 201 Colonial America to 1815
HIST 202 United States, 1815-1920
HIST 203 U.S. History Since 1920
HIST 205 The Historian's Craft
HIST 343 Intro to Public History
HIST 357 Challenges of the American Experience I (to 1865)
HIST 344 The American City
HIST 445 Environmental Thought in the United States
Graduate
HIST 540 The United States in the Twentieth Century
HIST 550 Public History: Theory and Practice
HIST 636 The American West