George Mason University's History News Network (an online vehicle for historians to keep track of important and interesting developments related to history) named McGill professor Brian Cowan a "Top Young Historian."
A Canada Research Chair in Early Modern British History and author of The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse, (Yale University Press, 2005), 36-year old Cowan has taught at Yale and the University of Sussex (UK), before coming to McGill.
"[Teaching] has been an opportunity to learn both from and with my students," says Cowan, finding that his time in the classroom both broadens his research horizons and shapes new research agendas.
Cowan is currently working on a book on the media politics surrounding the 1710 trial of Doctor Henry Sacheverell and is collaborating with Professor David A. Boruchoff (Department of Hispanic Studies) on a study of the notion that the "three greatest inventions of modern times" are the compass, gunpowder and the printing press.
Raise a pint of Guinness in honour of the McGill Debating Union, who were in Dublin competing amongst 320 teams from around the world. Of three McGill teams, two cracked the top 32 and Jessica Prince came out as Canada's best individual speaker - ninth overall in the world!