Jeremy Cowan

{{short description|British historian}} {{use British English|date=September 2025}} {{use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = Professor | name = Jeremy Cowan | honorific_suffix = CBE | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = Charles Donald Cowan | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1923|11|18}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2013|09|03|1923|11|18}} | death_place = | death_cause = | citizenship =  | other_names = C. D. Cowan | occupation = Academic | period = | known_for = Director of SOAS University of London | title = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = | website = | education = | alma_mater = | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline = Historian | sub_discipline = Modern history | workplaces = SOAS University of London | doctoral_students =  | notable_students = | main_interests = Modern Southeast Asia | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Charles D. Cowan''' (1923–2013), normally known as '''Jeremy Cowan''', was a British historian and academic administrator.<ref name="times-obit">{{cite news| url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/professor-cdcowan-p2fdd3sxtpm | title=Professor C.D.Cowan | newspaper=The Times | date=23 October 2013 }}</ref> He was the Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London during 1976–1989.<ref name="soas">{{cite web| url=https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/archives/2016/12/12/academics-agents-and-activists-a-history-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies-1916-2016-3/ | title=The Cowan Years (1976–1989) | work=Academics, Agents and Activists: A history of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1916–2016 | publisher=SOAS University of London | location=UK | access-date=8 September 2025 }}</ref>

Jeremy Cowan was a historian of modern Southeast Asia.<ref name="soas" /> Under Cowas's leadership at SOAS, a Japan Research Centre was founded in 1978, a Centre of Music Studies in 1979, and a Centre for Art and Archaeology in 1981. As Director of SOAS, he had to deal with state funding cuts under the Margaret Thatcher government in the early 1980s, and many scholars were lost from the institution as a result. In 1986, the ''Parker Report'', commissioned by the UK University Grants Committee to assess Asian and African study needs, criticized these cuts. Thus, in 1987–88, funding was provided for 18 new posts together with additional library support.

Cowan's portrait was painted by Richard Stone.<ref name="artuk">{{cite web| url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/professor-jeremy-cowan-soas-director-19801989-124046 | title=Professor Jeremy Cowan, SOAS Director (1980–1989), Richard Stone (b.1951), School of Oriental and African Studies | website=Art UK | access-date=8 September 2025 }}</ref> He was awarded a CBE.

==Books== * {{cite book| first=C.D. | last=Cowan | title=Nineteenth Century Malaya The Origins of British Political Control | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=1962 }}

* {{cite book| first=C.D. | last=Cowan | title=South East Asian History in London (Inaugural Lecture) | publisher=University of London S.O.A.S. | date=1963 | isbn=978-0901877550 }} * {{cite book| editor-first=C.D. | editor-last=Cowan | title=The Economic Development of China and Japan | publisher=Routledge | date=2005 | isbn=978-0415381512 }}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{s-bef|before=Cyril Philips}} {{s-ttl|title=Director of SOAS University of London|years=1976–1989}} {{s-aft|after=Michael McWilliam}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Jeremy}} Category:1923 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Place of birth missing Category:Historians from London Category:20th-century British historians Category:21st-century British historians Category:Historians of Southeast Asia Category:Directors of SOAS University of London Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire