Ian Gowan
Instructional Associate Professor of Spanish and Croft Associate Director
As Associate Director of the Croft Institute I teach classes, help facilitate the Croft senior thesis process, serve as academic advisor, and support the staff and students of the institute with day-to-day operations. As Croft Associate Professor of Spanish, I teach mostly advanced conversation classes focusing on contemporary issues from the Spanish-speaking world.
Biography
Dr. Ian Gowan is the Associate Director of the Croft Institute and Croft Instructional Associate Professor of Spanish. He obtained his B.A. in Spanish from Gettysburg College in 2004, his M.A. in Hispanic Literature in 2008 and his Ph.D. in Contemporary Latin American Literature in 2013 from the University of Kansas, with a concentration on politically-motivated film and theater of the Southern Cone. As the Associate Director of the Croft Institute, Dr. Gowan teaches classes, serves as the facilitator of the Croft Senior thesis process (Inst 421 and Inst 422), organizes the Croft Visiting Speaker Series, serves as the liaison between the Croft Institute and the Office of Study Abroad, and helps students navigate the International Studies major (and beyond) as academic advisor to many students in the Institute. In addition, Dr. Gowan supports the staff and the Institute with day-to-day operations related to recruitment and admissions, scholarship awards, faculty recruitment, and Croft events. As Croft Associate Professor of Spanish, Dr. Gowan teaches courses in intermediate and advanced Spanish with a special emphasis on oral proficiency. Recently, he has been teaching SPAN 397, an advanced conversation course designed specifically for International Studies students that focuses on current events from Latin America and Spain. Dr. Gowan is a fully-certified tester of the Spanish OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview), a language assessment designed by ACTFL (the American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages), which he has used to help both develop a placement exam for incoming students in the Croft Spanish program, and to track student progress through the major. As co-director of the Spanish language program in Croft, Dr. Gowan (together with Dr. Otero) has worked since the fall of 2019 to design an oral proficiency-based curriculum in Croft with the goal of helping students reach advanced proficiency in Spanish by their senior year. Dr. Gowan (together with Dr. Otero) present regularly on their Spanish-language pedagogy (specifically the topic of “role-play debates”) at the annual ACTL convention.
Courses Taught
- SPAN 305 Intensive Conversation and Composition
- SPAN 397 Conversation for Upper Level Spanish
- SPAN 599 Span St. Special Topics
- INST 385 Internship in International Studies
- INST 422 Research Seminar II
Education
Ph.D. Spanish, University of Kansas Main Campus (2008)
M.A. Spanish, University of Kansas Main Campus (2013)