In the fields of cultural studies, film studies, media studies and postcolonial studies, he is author of Post-Marxism Versus Cultural Studies[2] (Edinburgh University Press, 2007),[3]Deconstructing Popular Culture[4] (Palgrave, 2008), Theorizing Bruce Lee (Rodopi, 2009), Culture and the media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) Reading Rey Chow: Visuality, postcoloniality, ethnicity, sexuality (Peter Lang, 2013), and Beyond Bruce Lee: Chasing the dragon through film, philosophy and popular culture (Wallflower/Columbia University Press, 2013).
Since 2015, Bowman has devoted himself to developing research and publication in the new field of martial arts studies. His first monograph in this area was Martial arts studies: disrupting disciplinary boundaries (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2015). This was followed up by Mythologies of martial arts (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016). Then the open access monograph, Deconstructing martial arts (Cardiff University Press, 2019) (10.18573/book1). Most recently, Bowman published The invention of martial arts: popular culture between Asia and America (Oxford University Press, 2021).
He is also editor of several books: Interrogating Cultural Studies[5] (Pluto, 2003), The Truth of Žižek[6] (Continuum, 2007), Reading Ranciere (Continuum 2010), The Rey Chow Reader (Columbia University Press, 2010) and The Martial Arts Studies Reader (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2018).
In addition to these books, Bowman has edited issues of the journals Parallax, Social Semiotics, Postcolonial Studies, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Global Media and China, and many issues of the journals he co-founded and co-edited, JOMEC Journal and Martial Arts Studies.
He has written over a dozen monographs, edited six further books, published 44 academic journal articles and 33 academic book chapters. He is also author of the non-academic book, The Treasures ofBruce Lee (Carlton, 2013).
His work has been translated into Chinese, Czech, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Turkish.
Although he does not practice this art, in 2015, Bowman was awarded an honorary blackbelt in taekkyon by Master Kim of the World Taekkyeon Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea.
In 2016, Bowman was awarded a tewhatewha (or general's staff) by Tamiaho Herangi-Searancke, who holds the role of Guardian, Protectorate and Master in Rituals to the New Zealand Maori King Tuheitia Paki. The tewhatewha was presented for services to the development of scholarly knowledge of martial arts and culture.
In 2020, Bowman established The Martial Arts Studies Podcast. At first, episodes were conversations with academics working in the field of martial arts studies. However, over the last few years, episodes have mainly been recordings of lectures and conference presentations, both those of Bowman himself and those of others working in the field. Episodes are podcast fortnightly in two formats: audio (on Podbean) and video, on The Martial Arts Studies YouTube Channel.
Open Access Publishing
Bowman has initiated and developed three open access publishing innovations. The first was JOMEC Journal: an open access journal of journalism, media and cultural studies, based in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University.
Bowman then worked with the head of Cardiff University Library Services and Professor Justin Lewis to found the open access publisher, Cardiff University Press.
JOMEC Journal was the first journal to be signed by Cardiff University Press, and migrated across to its platform, hosted by Ubiquity.
Along with Benjamin Judkins, Bowman then founded the journal Martial Arts Studies. This was the second journal to be signed by Cardiff University Press.
Bowman was the first Editor-in-Chief of Cardiff University Press, and then became second Chair of the press. He remains on the Board of Cardiff University Press and is a vocal advocate of open access publishing.
Teaching and Supervision
Bowman teaches undergraduate modules in 'Film, Media and Cultural Theory' and 'East Meets West in Film and Popular Culture'; and the postgraduate module 'Cultural Theory and Analysis'.
He has supervised over 22 PhD students to successful completion, and has examined more than 30 PhDs, in Cardiff University, other universities in the UK, and internationally.
He supervises PhD projects in the area of martial arts, media, physical culture, cultural theory, popular culture and cultural politics.
Editorial Boards and Research Councils
Bowman is on the editorial board of the journals: Acta Periodica Duellatorum; Advanced Methods; Asian Journal of Sports History and Culture; Ctrl–Z: New / Media / Philosophy; Global Discourse; Culture Machine; International Journal of the History of Sports; Journal of Embodied Research; Journal of Martial Arts Research; Journal of Visual Political Communication; and Revista de Estudios Globales y Arte Contemporáneo.
Bowman was educated at St. Mary's Comprehensive School in Newcastle (UK). He studied English at Leeds University, then an MA in Cultural Studies at Leeds, and then a PhD, also in Cultural Studies at Leeds. His PhD topic was 'Post-Marxist "Discourse" and the Theory/Practice Divide in Cultural Studies".
Career
Bowman was Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Bath Spa University (2001-2003); Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Roehampton University (2003-4); Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Roehampton University (2004-8); Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University (2008-10), Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies (2010-12), Reader in Media and Cultural Studies (2012-16), and Professor of Cultural Studies (2016-present). Since 2021, he has also been Deputy Head of the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, at Cardiff University.
Martial Arts
Bowman has studied martial arts since he was 13. He started in Shotokan Karate when he was 13. At university, he studied taekwondo. After university, he practiced kickboxing. He tried aikido and taijiquan during his PhD years. After his PhD, in 2001, he started studying taijiquan in earnest. He studied with the Yongquan Martial Arts Association from 2003, under Graham Barlow, and gained teaching qualifications in taijiquan and bak sing choy lee fut kung fu. After a catastrophic ankle injury in 2009, he struggled to continue practice, and eventually switched to escrima. He gained a teaching level qualification in escrima in 2018. In 2019, he took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21 curtailed his practice until May 2021. In June 2022, he was awarded his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He has trained in 12 martial arts and has teaching level qualifications in three.
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, formal sciences and computer science.
Tai chi is an ancient Chinese martial art. Initially developed for combat and self-defense, it has evolved into a sport and form of exercise. Tai chi is a gentle, low-impact form of exercise in which practitioners perform a series of deliberate, flowing motions while focusing on deep, slow breaths. Often referred to as "meditation in motion," tai chi aims to concentrate and balance the body's qi, providing benefits to mental and physical health.
In the broadest sense, cultural resource management (CRM) is the vocation and practice of managing heritage assets, and other cultural resources such as contemporary art. It incorporates Cultural Heritage Management which is concerned with traditional and historic culture. It also delves into the material culture of archaeology. Cultural resource management encompasses current culture, including progressive and innovative culture, such as urban culture, rather than simply preserving and presenting traditional forms of culture.
Media imperialism is an area in the international political economy of communications research tradition that focuses on how "all Empires, in territorial or nonterritorial forms, rely upon communications technologies and mass media industries to expand and shore up their economic, geopolitical, and cultural influence." In the main, most media imperialism research examines how the unequal relations of economic, military and cultural power between an imperialist country and those on the receiving end of its influence tend to be expressed and perpetuated by mass media and cultural industries.
Dick Hebdige is an English media theorist and sociologist, and a professor emeritus of art and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he taught from 2004 to 2021. His work is commonly associated with the study of subcultures, and its resistance against the mainstream of society. His current research interests include media topographies, desert studies, and performative criticism.
Giles Scott-Smith is a Dutch-British academic. He is a professor of transnational relations and new diplomatic history at Leiden University and serves as the dean of Leiden University College The Hague.
Robert Stam is an American film theorist working on film semiotics. He is a professor at New York University, where he teaches about the French New Wave filmmakers. Stam has published widely on French literature, comparative literature, and on film topics such as film history and film theory. Together with Ella Shohat, he co-authored Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media.
John Fiske was a media scholar and cultural theorist who taught around the world. His primary areas of intellectual interest included cultural studies, critical analysis of popular culture, media semiotics, and television studies.
Arif Dirlik was a Turkish-American historian who published on historiography and political ideology in modern China, as well as issues in modernity, globalization, and postcolonial criticism. Dirlik received a BSc in electrical engineering at Robert College, Istanbul in 1964 and a PhD in history at the University of Rochester in 1973.
John Hartley, , FAHA,, FLSW, ICA Fellow, is an Australian academic and a John Curtin Distinguished Emeritus Professor. He was formerly Professor of Cultural Science and the Director of the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) at Curtin University in Western Australia, and Professor of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. He has published over twenty books about communication, journalism, media and cultural studies, many of which have been translated into other languages. Hartley is an adjunct professor with CCAT.
Nader El-Bizri is the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Sharjah. He served before as a tenured longstanding full Professor of philosophy and civilization studies at the American University of Beirut, where he also acted as an Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and as the Director of the General Education program. El-Bizri specializes in phenomenology, Islamic science and philosophy, and architectural theory. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (2000).
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. The field started to emerge in the 1960s, as scholars from previously colonized countries began publishing on the lingering effects of colonialism, developing a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of imperial power.
Robert Hodge is an Australian academic, author, theorist and critic. While best known as a semiotician and critical linguist, his work encompasses a wide, interdisciplinary range of fields including cultural theory, media studies, chaos theory, Marxism, psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, post-modernism and many other topics both within the humanities as well as science. He is currently a professor at the University of Western Sydney.
Ali A. Abdi is a Somali-Canadian sociologist and educationist. Currently, he is a professor of social development education in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he previously served as head of department. Before that, he was a professor of International Education and International Development at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he also served as the founding co-director of the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research (CGCER). He is past president of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC). In addition, he is the founding editor/co-editor of the peer-reviewed online publications Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education and Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry.
Martin McQuillan is a Scottish-born literary theorist, cultural critic and journalist currently employed at Edge Hill University. He was Professor of Literary Theory and Cultural Analysis and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Kingston University, London, where he was also Co-Director of The London Graduate School, and was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research, Business and Innovation between 2015 and 2017. He was previously Pro-Dean of Research (2005–09) for the Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications at the University of Leeds, where he was also Head of the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies (2001–2005). Before that he was a lecturer in English at Staffordshire University (1997–2000).
Rey Chow is a cultural critic, specializing in 20th-century Chinese fiction and film and postcolonial theory. Educated in Hong Kong and the United States, she has taught at several major American universities, including Brown University. Chow is currently Anne Firor Scott Professor of Literature in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University.
Gary Hall is British cultural and media theorist and Professor of Media and Performing Arts in the Coventry University Department of Media, UK.
Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz. He works in the phenomenological tradition of Continental philosophy, environmental thought, and political philosophy.
Ariel Heryanto is an Indonesian humanities scholar specializing in cultural studies, media studies, and postcolonial studies. He currently holds the position of Herb Feith Professor for the Study of Indonesia at Monash University, Australia, and serves as deputy director of the Monash Asia Institute. Previously, he was head of the Southeast Asia Centre in the Faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University. Heryanto has held various lecturer positions at different universities, including senior lecturer and head of the Indonesian Studies Program at the University of Melbourne, senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore, and postgraduate lecturer at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga, Indonesia. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, his MA in Asian studies from the University of Michigan, United States, and his PhD in cultural anthropology from Monash University. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2016.
Imre Szeman is a Canadian cultural theorist, professor, and public intellectual. He is Director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation, and Sustainability and Professor of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Szeman was previously University Research Chair of Environmental Communication at the University of Waterloo(2017–2022), Canada Research Chair of Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta (2009–2016), and Senator William McMaster Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. In 2020, Szeman was named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2022, he was the Leverhulme Visiting professor in Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. From 2021 to 2022, Szeman served as the Climate Critic for the Green Party of Canada. In 2024, he became the Green Party's Critic for Electoral Reform.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
