Pronouns: he/him
Education
Ph.D., University of Calgary - Religious Studies
Master of Divinity (Hons.), St. Andrew’s Theological College
B.A., University of Victoria - English Literature
Research and teaching interests
Popular culture and social identity; religion and popular culture; propaganda theory; social construction of knowledge; human beings and technology.
Courses taught in SDS
RS/SDS 242R Religious Diversity and Social Development
RS/SDS 420R Critical Encounter with Human Nature
Other courses taught through the Religious Studies department.
Joint-Appointment
Religious Studies department
Published Books
Cowan, D.E. (2022). The Forbidden Body: Sex, Horror, and the Religious Imagination. New York: New York University Press.
Cowan, D. E. (2010). Sacred Space: The Quest for Transcendence in Science Fiction Film and Television. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Cowan, D. E. (2019). Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes: How Myth and Religion Shape Fantasy Culture. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Cowan, D. E. (2008). Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Cowan, D. E. (2018). America’s Dark Theologian: The Religious Imagination of Stephen King. New York: New York University Press.
Other Publications and Awards
For all current and historical work, please read Doug's full CV here.
Books
(Forthcoming) The Christian Countercult Movement. Cambridge Elements Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chapters and Essays
(2022) “Religion and Spirituality.” In The Routledge Companion to Star Trek. Edited by Sean Guynes, Sabrina Mittermeier, and Stefan Rabitsch, 340-47. New York: Routledge.
(2021) “Re-Iterations: On Tellings, Variants, and Why Monsters Always Come Back.” In Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous: Of Gods and Monsters! Edited by Natasha L. Mikles and Joseph P. Laycock, 17-28. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.
(2021) “Consider the Yattering: The Infernal Order and the Religious Imagination in Real Time.” In Theology and Horror. Edited by Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead, 3-20. Lanham, MD: Lexington/Fortress Academic.
(2020) “Reading Religion in the Dead of Night.” In Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film. Edited by Rebecca Booth, Valeska Griffiths, and Erin Thompson, 7-15. House of Leaves Publishing.
(2019) “‘Crap, we needed a god…’: Religion, Videogames, and the Digital Social.” In The Digital Social: Religion and Belief. Edited by Alphia Possamai-Inesedy and Alan Nixon, 93-109. Berlin: DeGrutyer.
(2018). “Exposing Gnosticism.” In The Gnostic World, ed. Garry Trompf, Jay Johnston, and Gunner Mikkelsen, 673-80. New York and London: Routledge.
Awards
2021 Nominated for Molson Prize
2021 Nominated for Killam Award
2019 Awarded University of Waterloo Faculty of Arts Award for Excellence in Research
2019 Nominated for Grawmeyer Award in Religion (America’s Dark Theologian).