Cowan, Sarah
Assistant Professor of Art and Art History
- Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2019, History of Art
- M.A. University of California, Berkeley, 2015, History of Art
- B.A. University of California, Berkeley, 2011, History of Art
Teaching Interests
Modern and Contemporary Art of the Americas; African-American Art and Art of the African Diaspora; U.S. American Art; Queer and Feminist Art History; Latinx and Chicanx Art; Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art; Global Contemporary Art
Courses Regularly Taught
- ARTH 136A Histories of American Art (Power, Privilege and Diversity course)
- ARTH 281A Histories of Performance Art (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies)
- ARTH 282A Art + Liberation: The United States Since 1960 (Africana Studies; Power, Privilege, and Diversity course)
- ARTH 290 Music Video and American Visual Art (Film Studies; Power, Privilege, and Diversity course)
- ARTH 390 Histories of Photography (Film Studies; Power, Privilege, and Diversity course)
Research Interests
Sarah Louise Cowan's research focuses on modern and contemporary art of the Americas with a particular focus on Black feminist modernisms. Her book, Howardena Pindell: Reclaiming Abstraction (Yale University Press, Nov. 2022) is the first book-length scholarly publication about any aspects of the multifaceted career of artist, activist, curator and writer Howardena Pindell (b. 1943). The book interrogates the history and reception of abstraction in the U.S., particularly how Black artists since 1960 have reclaimed abstract art by rerouting its dominant associations with Euro-American modernisms. The book received a 2021 Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant. Cowan's other research interests include artistic notions of labor and laziness, landscape interventions, and memorialization. She is launching a second book project, which will explore the intersection of contemporary art and grief.
Selected Awards
- 2022–2023 Tyson Scholar of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
- 2021 Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant, College Art Association
- 2020 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend
- 2018–2019 Mellon-ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship
- 2017–2018 Smithsonian American Art Museum Predoctoral Fellowship
- 2017–2018 Getty Library Research Grant
Selected Publications
Books
- Howardena Pindell: Reclaiming Abstraction (Yale University Press, 2022)
Peer-reviewed Journals
Exhibition Texts
- "Clearly Seen: A Chronology," in Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen, eds. Naomi Beckwith and Valerie Cassel Oliver (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago), 2018