My name is Erin Alice Cowling, and I am an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Humanities at MacEwan University (2017-). Previously I have been an Assistant Professor of Early Modern Spanish at Hampden-Sydney College (2015-2017), a Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish at Grinnell College (2013-2015), and an Instructor of Gender Studies at Queen’s University (2012). My research focuses on the Transatlantic Colonial Period, particularly how characters of the Other (women, Indigenous peoples, and other marginalized characters) are portrayed in Spanish Golden Age theatre. Currently, I am considering questions of how modern adaptations open up new venues for research and dissemination of early modern theatre.

For more information on my past and current work, please check out my research page.

My interest in the Spanish language and culture grew from my exposure to Spanish exchange students who were housed with our family annually during my childhood. At the age of 16 I returned to Spain’s Basque region with a former exchange student to get to know the country and my exchange sister’s family. It was love at first tapa! Although I had only had one year of Spanish language learning prior to this experience, my passion for languages was only further intensified by those 3 weeks in el País Vasco.

As an undergraduate I studied both History and Spanish. I returned to Spain to take a summer course that focused on Golden Age Theatre and featured performances at the Almagro Festival de Teatro Clásico. I then continued my studies at Western University Canada (formerly the University of Western Ontario) as a Master’s student and once again returned to Spain to work on a thesis that combined my love of history and the Spanish language, through archival research at the Archivo de Indias in Sevilla. During this time I lived in Huelva, Spain and took classes at the Universidad de Huelva. I return to Spain regularly to work in the archives and the Biblioteca Nacional, but would like to spend more time traveling and researching in Latin America soon.

I completed my PhD in German and Romance Languages and Literatures at the Johns Hopkins University under Dr. William Egginton in 2012. My dissertation focused on representations of the Americas in early modern Spanish theatre, a topic which continues to influence my more recent work.