Marion Bowman Explained

Marion Bowman (born 1955) is a British academic working on the borders of religious studies and folklore and ethnology. She is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, The Open University.[1]

Bowman is a long-standing researcher into New Age and alternative spiritualities.[2] Her research focus is predominantly contemporary spirituality in the UK and Europe, particularly "the practices and beliefs of individuals both within and on the margins of institutional religion".[3]

Education

Bowman began her university education at Glasgow University but moved to Lancaster University to study under Prof Ninian Smart.

Bowman completed her MA in Folklore at Memorial University, Newfoundland: her dissertation was on devotion to St Gerard Majella in Newfoundland.[4] She completed her PhD at the University of Glamorgan in 1998 on 'Vernacular Religion and Contemporary Spirituality: Studies in Religious Experience and Expression'.[5]

Career

From 1990 to 2000 Bowman was based at Bath Spa University in the department of Study of Religions.

In 2000 Bowman joined the Religious Studies department at The Open University. She was Head of Department between 2010 and 2013.

Bowman has carried out a long term study of Glastonbury, seeing it as a sight of "significant pilgrimage destination and microcosm of contemporary spirituality and vernacular religiosity".[6]

Bowman is a member of the Steering Committee of the Baron Thyssen Centre for the Study of Ancient Material Religion, based in the Classical Studies Department at the Open University.[7] She was also a Co-Investigator on the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project Pilgrimage and England’s Cathedrals, Past and Present, which ran from 2014-2018.[8]

The research of Bowman and Open University colleagues into alternative religions has been seen to have a number of impacts: both at an academic level in influencing research agendas but also in influencing a more positive public awareness of practitioners of alternative religions.[9]

Recognition

Bowman has been a visiting lecturer or professor at a number of European universities, including the University of Oslo, Norway;[10] University of Bayreuth, Germany; University of Pecs, Hungary and University of Tartu, Estonia.[11]

Bowman is currently vice-president of theology and religious studies UK.[12] She is a former president of the British Association for the Study of Religions and a former Vice-President of the European Association for the Study of Religions.[13]

Between 2002 and 2005, Bowman served as president of the Folklore Society: her Presidential Lectures derived from her research into Glastonbury and Newfoundland.[14] [15] She is an International Fellow of the American Folklore Society.[16]

Selected publications

References

  1. Web site: Dr Marion Bowman OU people profiles. 2021-04-01. www.open.ac.uk. en.
  2. Web site: 2013-09-23. It's a way with the fairies. 2021-05-01. The Independent. en.
  3. Web site: Marion Bowman. 2021-04-01. The Conversation. 19 June 2014 . en.
  4. Bowman . Marion . The contented collector: materiality, relationality and the power of things . Material Religion . 27 July 2016 . 12 . 3 . 384–386 . 10.1080/17432200.2016.1192159 . 193315973 .
  5. Bowman . Marion Irene . 1998 . Vernacular Religion and Contemporary Spirituality: Studies in Religious Experience and Expression .
  6. Web site: Bowman. 2021-04-01. The Baron Thyssen Centre for the Study of Ancient Material Religion. en-US.
  7. Web site: Steering Committee. 2021-04-01. The Baron Thyssen Centre for the Study of Ancient Material Religion. en-US.
  8. Web site: Cathedrals & Pilgrimage. 2021-04-01. Cathedrals & Pilgrimage. en.
  9. Web site: REF Case study search. 2021-05-01. impact.ref.ac.uk.
  10. Web site: jeg?. Besøksadresse P. A. Munchs husNiels Henrik Abels vei 36 0371 OSLO Postadresse Postboks 1010 Blindern 0315 OSLO Kontakt oss Hvem kontakter. Marion Bowman er tilsatt som professor II i kulturhistorie - Institutt for kulturstudier og orientalske språk. 2021-05-01. www.hf.uio.no. no.
  11. Web site: 2018-11-30. 2019 ISSRNC Conference - Keynote Speaker Marion Bowman. 2021-04-01. The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC). en-US.
  12. Web site: Who We Are – Theology and Religious Studies UK. 2021-04-01. en-GB.
  13. Web site: Contesting Authority; Vernacular Knowledge and Alternative Beliefs; Marion Bowman and Ülo Valk. 2021-04-01. Equinox Publishing. en-US.
  14. Bowman . Marion . Vernacular religion and nature: The 'Bible of the Folk' tradition in Newfoundland . Folklore . March 2003 . 114 . 3 . 285–295 . 10.1080/0015587032000145333 . 144203410 .
  15. Bowman . Marion . Presidential address given to the Folklore society, March 2004: Procession and possession in glastonbury: continuity, change and the manipulation of tradition . Folklore . December 2004 . 115 . 3 . 273–285 . 10.1080/0015587042000284266 . free .
  16. Web site: AFS Fellows . 2024-02-07 . American Folklore Society . en-US.

External links

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