IRVING, Texas (Oct. 14, 2024) — Mary Mumbach, BA ’70 PhD ’77, has been named the 2024-25 Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the Donald and Louise Cowan Center of the University of Dallas.

After receiving her undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Dallas, the latter under the direction of Louise Cowan, PhD, Mumbach went on to co-found the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and the Honors Program of Magdalen College. Her distinguished teaching career has spanned four decades.

About Mumbach’s critical writing Cowan observed: “…[Mumbach’s] way of reading literature … makes us go back and reencounter the medieval imagination in order to read modern literature … in a way that has never been needed more urgently than in this present time.” Mumbach has written on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and other great works of the Western tradition but especially on William Faulkner’s novels.

Mumbach will be a featured speaker in the Cowan Center’s Fall Seminar on Faulkner. She will also lead graduate seminars, participate in the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature and conduct her own research during her residence.

“We look forward to welcoming as our next Scholar in Residence an alumna, scholar and teacher so beloved by the university and so committed to the ideas and vision of Donald and Louise Cowan,” said Bainard Cowan, PhD, BA ’70, director of the Cowan Center.

Mumbach’s residency began on Oct. 11.

About the Donald and Louise Cowan Center

The Donald and Louise Cowan Center seeks to transform culture through acquainting the public with the necessity of liberal learning and promoting the central role of poetry in the quest for the good life and the movement toward a humane, noble and just society. Donald and Louise Cowan, visionaries in the fields of education, physics and literature, were guiding lights at the University of Dallas. From the 1960s until their deaths, they established a core curriculum of classics and set high standards for learning in students’ chosen fields. The Cowan Center aims to continue their essential work by holding scholarly events and public seminars and publishing books, essays, and online items presenting and extending their writings and ideas.

About the University of Dallas

The University of Dallas strives to be the premier Catholic liberal arts university in the country, known for its rigorous undergraduate Core Curriculum and robust graduate and professional programs in business, ministry, education and the humanities. According to national rankings, the University of Dallas has one of America’s most challenging, comprehensive undergraduate interdisciplinary programs, offered at an excellent value to some of the happiest students in the country. With campuses in Texas and Italy, UDallas stands apart as a thriving community of learners committed to an education that forms students intellectually, socially and spiritually for a life well-lived. For more information, visit udallas.edu.