Dr. James Cousins serves as Kentucky Wesleyan College’s Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs and is responsible for establishing strategic priorities and leading progress towards shared objectives. He oversees all aspects of the academic enterprise, from accreditation and faculty management to budgets, personnel, online programs, retention, and marketing. In his spare time he assists with overall development of the men's and women's golf program.
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Cousins was an Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Michigan University where he supervised curriculum development, retention initiatives, program assessment, and undergraduate student services. Before that, he was a tenured history professor and taught courses in American history, historical research, and secondary education social studies methods.
His scholarship is divided between the history of education and the practice of teaching history. In addition to over 40 articles, essays, reviews, and translations published in popular journals such as The Journal of Southern History, The Journal of American History, and The History Teacher, Cousins has published two books. His first monograph, Horace Holley: Transylvania University and the Making of Liberal Education in the Early American Republic (Kentucky, 2016) explores the political and cultural currents that shaped a distinctly American view of intellect and erudition in the 19th century. His second book, a co-authored work titled Collaboration and the Future of Education: Preserving the Right to Think and Teach Historically (Routledge, 2016) addresses the craft of teaching for pre-service and practicing history teachers and provides models for building inter-institutional educational collaborations. His upcoming third book is a history of America’s college and university presidents. In support of that book, Dr. Cousins was featured in the PBS documentary, Under Pressure: Changes & Challenges In Higher Education.
Dr. Cousins has received awards for his teaching, scholarship, and service. He is a former Kentucky Historical Association Fellow, a former Research Fellow of the Filson Historical Association, a recipient of the Meader Presidential Endowment, a former Scholar In Residence at Transylvania University, a 2019-2020 American Council on Education Fellow, and was recently awarded the University of Chicago’s Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship. He received his BA from Ohio State University, and both his MA and PhD from the University of Kentucky.
