Dr Paul Bowman
Overview
Director of Postgraduate Research;
Director of the Race, Representation and Cultural Politics Research Group;
Editor of JOMECJournal;
Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Film & Visual Culture Research (IFVCR) Email: BowmanP@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)29 208 76797
Fax: N/A
Extension: 76797
Location: Room 0.36, Bute Building
Latest Conference Papers
Paul Bowman gave the paper 'Martial Arts and Oriental Philosophy' to the Philosophy Society at the University of Brighton - 12th January 2012. Download his Paper Martial Arts and Oriental Philosophy
Paul delivered the keynote speech at The ‘Communicating Civilisation and Global Order Conference, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London – 7th September 2011. Download his paper Re-Enter The Dragon
Paul delivered the keynote speech at Coventry University's conference - Asian Exposure: East Asian Cinema in a global context - 12th February 2011. Download his paper Spectres of Bruce Lee
Links
JOMECjournal
Postgraduate Research Studies
Race, Representation & Cultural Politics Research Group
Centre for Interdisciplinary Film and Visual Culture Research (IFVCR)
Paul Bowman researches, writes and teaches about cultural studies, popular culture, cultural theory, cultural politics, ‘The Orient’ in Western Culture, and martial arts.
Paul is Director of Postgraduate Research Studies, Director of the Race, Representation and Cultural Politics Research Group, founding editor of JOMEC Journal and founder of The Centre for Interdisciplinary Film and Visual Culture Research (IFVCR) at Cardiff University. He is also a member of Cardiff University’s Graduate College Board.
Paul is author of Post-Marxism versus Cultural Studies: Theory, Politics and Intervention (Edinburgh University Press, 2007), Deconstructing Popular Culture (Palgrave, 2008), Theorizing Bruce Lee (Rodopi, 2010), Beyond Bruce Lee (Wallflower, forthcoming) and Culture and the Media (Palgrave, forthcoming). He is currently writing a monograph on the significance of the work of Rey Chow for film and cultural studies, and a monograph for Edinburgh University Press entitled Rancière and Politics.
He is editor of The Rey Chow Reader (Columbia University Press, 2010), The Truth of Žižek (Continuum, 2007), Reading Rancière (Continuum, 2011), a book of interviews entitled Interrogating Cultural Studies: Theory, Politics and Practice (Pluto Press, 2003), and is currently preparing Rancière and Film for Edinburgh University Press
He has edited many issues of the journal Parallax and has recently edited issues of Social Semiotics (2010) and Postcolonial Studies (2010) and Educational Philosophy and Theory (2012). He is on the Editorial Board of the journals Culture Machine; The Poster; Ctrl-Z: New/Media/Philosophy; and Global Discourse. He has been an Editor of Parallax and a Reviewer for The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory.
Paul has published in the journals: Borderlands; Contemporary Politics; Contemporary Political Theory; Culture, Theory and Critique; EnterText; Global Discourse; Parallax; The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory; Social Semiotics; Strategies; UZAK; and has contributed chapters to such books as: Embodied Knowledge (2011); Enduring Resistance: Cultural theory after Derrida (2009), The Truth of Žižek (2007); New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory (2007); Modern British and Irish Criticism and Theory: A Critical Guide (2006); and Cultural Studies, Interdisciplinarity and Translation (2002), among others.
Personal Website cardiff.academia.edu/PaulBowman
Teaching
BA Modules
- Popular Culture (Second Year core module)
- Global Postcolonial Culture (Third Year option)
- Cultural Agency: Theory and Practice (Third Year option)
Publications
Books
(2013) Rancière and Politics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
(2013) Rancière and Film, Edinburgh University Press.
(2013) Rey Chow, A Critical Guide, New York: Peter Lang.
(2012) Culture and the Media, London: Palgrave.
(2012) Popular Cultural Pedagogy, In Theory, Wiley.
(2012) Beyond Bruce Lee: Chasing the Dragon through Film, Philosophy and Popular Culture, London & New York: Wallflower Press.
(2011) Studi culturali e Cultura Pop, Selected Writings, edited & translated by Floriana Bernardi. Bari, Italy: Progedit.
(2011) Reading Rancière: Critical Dissensus, London: Continuum.
(2010) Theorizing Bruce Lee: Film – Fantasy – Fighting – Philosophy, Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi.
(2010) The Rey Chow Reader, New York: Columbia University Press.
(2008) Deconstructing Popular Culture, London: Palgrave.
(2007) Post-Marxism versus Cultural Studies: Politics, Theory and Intervention, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
(2007) The Truth of Žižek, London: Continuum.
(2003) Interrogating Cultural Studies: Theory, Politics and Practice, London: Pluto.
Work in translation
Chinese: (2011) Chinese Translation of Post-Marxism Versus Cultural Studies, Nanjing, China: Jiangsu People’s Publishing House.
Book Chapters: Authored
(2013), Intersubjective Encounters: Re-Examining the work of Adrian Rifkin, ‘Autodidactics of Bits’, ed. Dana Arnold, IB Tauris.
(2013), Martial Arts and Philosophy, ‘When Bruce Lee Meets Alain Badiou’, ed. Damon Young and George Priest, SUNY.
(2013) Rancière and Film, ‘Filming Rancière’, ed. Paul Bowman, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
(2013), Visual Communication, ‘Politics and Ideology in Transnational Asian Film’, ed. David Machin, Berlin: De Gruyter.
(2012), The Legacy of Marxism: Contemporary Challenges, Conflicts, and Developments, ‘How to Not Read Žižek’, ed. Matthew T. Johnson, London: Continuum.
(2012), The Blackwell Companion to Hong Kong Cinema, ‘Spectres of Bruce Lee’, ed. Gina Marchetti, London: Blackwell.
(2011), The Edinburgh Companion to Poststructuralism, ‘Reception(s) of Theory’, ed. Benoit Dillet, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
(2011), Embodied Knowledge: Martial Arts in a Transnational World, ‘The Fantasy Corpus of Martial Arts’, ed. Douglas Farrer and John Whalen-Bridge, New York: SUNY.
(2011), Reading Rancière: Critical Dissensus, ‘Reading Rancière: A Critical Dissensus’, co-authored with Richard Stamp, ed. Paul Bowman and Richard Stamp, London: Continuum.
(2011), Culture, Media, Protest, ‘Bruce Lee v. Hegemony’, ed. Oliver Marchart, London: Ashgate.
(2011) Queer Europe: Europeanizing Queer, ‘Sick Man of Transl-Asia: Bruce Lee and Queer Cultural Translation’, Eds., M. Rosello and S. Dasgupta, Amsterdam and NY: Rodopi.
(2010) Martial Arts of the World, Vol. II, ‘The Globalization of Martial Arts’, Eds. Joseph Svinth and Thomas Green, Praeger Publishers: Westport.
(2010) Martial Arts of the World, Vol. II, ‘Jeet Kune Do’, Eds. Joseph Svinth and Thomas Green, Praeger Publishers: Westport.
(2010) Enduring Resistance: Cultural Theory after Derrida /La Résistance persévère: la théorie de la culture (d’)après Derrida, ‘Deconstruction is a Martial Art’, Eds. S. Houppermans, Amsterdam an New York: Rodopi.
(2007) The Truth of Žižek, ‘The Tao of Žižek’, Eds: P. Bowman and R. Stamp, Continuum, ISBN: 9780826490612, pp. 27-44.
(2007) The Truth of Žižek, ‘“Is this not precisely” The Truth of Žižek’, Eds: P. Bowman and R. Stamp, Continuum, ISBN: 9780826490612, pp. 1-8.
(2006) New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory, ‘Cultural Studies and Slavoj Žižek’, Eds: C. Burchall and G. Hall, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN: 074862208X, pp. 162-177.
(2006) Modern British and Irish Criticism and Theory: A Critical Guide, ‘Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Post-Marxism’, Ed. J. Wolfreys, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN: 0748624503, pp. 157-167.
(2003) Interrogating Cultural Studies: Theory, Politics and Practice, ‘Interrogating Cultural Studies’, Ed. P. Bowman, Pluto Press, ISBN: 0745317146, pp. 1–18.
(2002) Cultural Studies, Interdisciplinarity and Translation, ‘“Alarming and calming. Sacred and Accursed”: The Proper Impropriety of Cultural Studies’, Ed. S. Herbrechter, Rodopi, ISBN: 978-90-420-0893-9, pp. 55–72.
(2002) The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia of Modern Criticism and Theory, ‘Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Post-Marxism’, Ed. J. Wolfreys, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN: 0748613013, pp. 799–808.
(1999) A Dictionary of Cultural Theorists, ‘Umberto Eco’, Eds: E. Cashmore and C. Rojek, Routledge, ISBN: 0340645482, pp. 131-133.
(1999) A Dictionary of Cultural Theorists, ‘Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’, Eds: E. Cashmore and C. Rojek, Routledge, ISBN: 0340645482, pp. 443-445.
Keynote Address
(2011) Closing Keynote Speaker: ‘Communicating Civilization and Global Order’ Conference, SOAS, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 13-15 September.
Journal Issues Edited
(2012) JOMEC Journal: ‘Reconnecting Political Disconnection’, issue 1. May/June.
(2011) Educational Philosophy and Theory: ‘Popular Cultural Pedagogy, in Theory’.
(2010) Social Semiotics, 20:2: ‘Rey Chow and Postcolonial Social Semiotics’.
(2010) Postcolonial Studies, 13:4: ‘Rey Chow: Postcoloniality and Interdisciplinarity’.
(2009) Parallax 52, Jacques Rancière: In Disagreement.
(2000) Parallax 15, In Violence.
(1999) Parallax 11, Polemics: Against Cultural Studies.
(1999) Parallax 10, Practices of Procrastination.
Journal Issues: Commissioning Editor / Editorial Team
(2001) Parallax 20, The New International, ed., M. McQuillan, (Sept).
(2000) Parallax 14, Translators’ Ink, eds., J. Morra and M. Smith, (January).
(1999) Parallax 13, On Honour, ed., Sue Golding, (October).
(1999) Parallax 12, Passagen 2000, eds., Mieke Bal and D. Vanderburgh, (July).
(1998) Parallax 9, Neo-Pragmatism & New Romanticisms, eds., O. Cruz and R. Guins.
(1998) Parallax 8, Julia Kristeva 1966-96, ed., G. Pollock, (July).
(1998) Parallax 7,Translating ‘Algeria’, eds., J. Morra and M. Smith, (April).
(1998) Parallax 6, From Tel Quel to L’infini, ed., P. ffrench, (January).
(1997) Parallax 5,Work/Space, eds., S. Ellis and C. Greenblatt, (September).
Journal Articles: Authored
(2011) ‘Spectres of Bruce Lee’, UZAK, http://www.uzak.it/ (March)
(2009) ‘Aberrant Pedagogies: JR, QT and Bruce Lee’, Borderlands.
(2008) ‘The Fantasy Corpus of Martial Arts: or, the ‘communication’ of Bruce Lee’, Body & Society, Sage.
(2008) ‘Alterdisciplinarity’, Culture, Theory and Critique, Taylor & Francis/Routledge.
(2006) ‘Enter The Žižekian: Bruce Lee, Martial Arts, and the Problem of Knowledge’, EnterText, Volume 6 number 1 Autumn.
(2005) ‘Marxism(s) and Post-Marxism(s)’, The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 13: 35-59, Oxford University Press.
(2004) ‘The Task of the Transgressor’, Culture Machine, 6.
(2004) ‘Marxism(s) and Post-Marxism(s)’, The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 12: 29-57, Oxford University Press.
(2003) ‘Promiscuous Fidelity to Revolution, or, revaluing “revolutionary” left intellectualism’, Contemporary Politics: New Agendas and Global Debates, 9:1 (March), 33–44, Carfax, Routledge.
(2003) ‘Who Moved My Worth? Management Self-Help Books And You!’, Signs of the Times (online).
(2003) ‘Marxism(s) and Post-Marxism(s)’, The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 11, 17-42, Oxford University Press.
(2002) ‘Politics and Ethics From Behind’, Culture Machine, 4.
(2001) ‘Between Responsibility and Irresponsibility: Cultural Studies and the price of fish’, Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture & Politics, 14:2 (Nov), 277-293, Carfax, Routledge.
Research
Paul is Director of the Race, Representation and Cultural Politics Research Group and founder of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Film & Visual Culture Research (IFVCR). He researches questions of cultural agency and cultural politics in global/postcolonial popular culture.
Post-Marxism versus Cultural Studies: Politics, Theory and Intervention (Edinburgh University Press, 2007)
“[Post-Marxism Versus Cultural Studies is] the first sustained scholarly assessment of the scandal of post-Marxism [which] traces the struggle – both intellectual and political – of academic Marxism to keep its footing on the long march through the institution. As the “versus” that hinges his title suggests, neither post-Marxism nor cultural studies remain unscathed by Bowman’s staging of this face off. Post-Marxism versus Cultural Studies rewards the serious reader concerned to come to terms with the discursive politics of the contemporary university”. John Mowitt (Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota).
“This is an ambitious book which will make a significant impact in […] an exciting field which is beginning to open up a sustained ‘thinking about’ politics from a post-structuralist perspective”. Martin McQuillan (Professor of Cultural Theory and Analysis, University of Leeds)
Deconstructing Popular Culture (Palgrave, 2008)
“Deconstructing Popular Culture … is a valuable contribution to the field of cultural studies, which explains, elaborates and transforms the ways in which the disciplinary and institutional relations of deconstruction and cultural studies could be rethought. It builds and explicitly draws on the influential works of [key] figures […], yet also does something new – it finds a way of speaking to undergraduate students in cultural studies (and in the humanities in general) about why they need to read (and not be afraid of) deconstruction. Above all, it introduces these students to the institutionalisation of knowledge and intellectual inquiry – i.e., the ‘university scene’ – in which they are all already situated: its express aim is to realise the ways in which, as the book’s mantra has it, ‘deconstruction is an institutional practice for which the institution remains a problem’. This is a book with both a passionate argument – and not everyone will agree with it, of course, which is one its key themes – and a rare skill in making the ‘fine print’ of complex theoretical arguments accessible to a non-specialist audience”. (Anonymous Reviewer for Palgrave)
Theorizing Bruce Lee (Rodopi, 2009)
Theorizing Bruce Lee engages questions of culture, politics, ideology and philosophy by way of a series of engagements with the popular cultural film and martial arts icon, Bruce Lee. The book deals with the cultural and theoretical issues, themes and problematics of Bruce Lee’s emergence and success, the relations between Bruce Lee films and cultural fantasy, the relations between these fantasies and cultural practices such as martial arts, and the wider cultural, political and philosophical issues of Bruce Lee’s intervention.
Leon Hunt writes: “Bruce Lee is a complex and contradictory figure, and it's a formidable task to take on the multiple facets of his legacy – fighter, film star, philosopher, nationalist, multiculturalist, innovator. With an approach as multidisciplinary and iconoclastic as Lee's approach to martial arts, Bowman provides an original and exhilarating account of Lee as ‘cultural event’. No one has done a better job of explaining why the martial arts 'legend' remains such an important and provocative figure”.
Similarly, Gina Marchetti writes: “Taking on Martin Heidegger and Slavoj Žižek as well as drawing on Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Guy Debord, Jacques Ranciere, Rey Chow, and Stuart Hall, among others, Bowman shows how Bruce Lee “speaks” to the philosophical debates that frame our understanding of global popular culture today. Although Bowman may not be able to resolve the philosophical battles surrounding our ability to “know” Bruce Lee, he does a remarkable job of articulating why Bruce Lee remains an essential force within not only world cinema but global culture – both “high” and “low.” Armoured with his philosophical nunchakus, Bowman goes to battle with anyone who may doubt Lee’s ongoing importance, and this book will undoubtedly become essential reading for everyone (from philosopher to kung fu practitioner) interested in popular culture and Asian cinema.”
Postgraduate Students
Paul Bowman can supervise research students working in the fields of:
- cultural theory
- discourse and ideology analysis
- deconstruction
- cultural politics
- popular culture
- martial arts studies
Current Research Students
Corbett Miteff: “The Future States of Religion in Children’s Science Fiction Animation” (2008-).
Sean Geoghegan: “‘Take Care’: An Examination of the Relationship Between the UK Media and the ‘looked after’ Community” (2008-).
Matthew Winston: “Hunter S Thompson and Gonzo Journalism” (2009-).
Merisa Skulsuthavong: ‘Multiculturalism in Thailand’ (2010-).
Maria Papadopoulou: ‘Music, Spirituality and Social Division’ (2010-).
Hyunju Lee: ‘The effect of online politics on democracy focusing on power-sharing among political subjects: the role of government communication apparatus in Korea’ (2010-)
Xin Zhang: ‘The conflicting identities of Chinese ethnic minorities in the UK’ (2011-)
(Secondary supervisor of many further PhD students)
Examination of PhD Research Students
(2012), Bernhard Gross, Cardiff University, ‘The State of The Nation’, January.
(2011), Wayne Wong, University of Hong Kong. ‘Reinventing "The Real": Transfigurations of Cinematic Kung Fu in the 21st Century’. Viva Voce: December.
(2009), Nasheli Jiménez del Val, Cardiff University, UK. “Seeing Cannibals: European colonial discourses on the Latin American ‘other’”. Viva Voce: 8th Sept. 2009.
(2009), Lucy Bennett, Cardiff University, UK. “Commonality of Interest Within an Online Community”. Viva Voce: 19th June 2009.
(2009) Luke White, Middlesex University, London, UK. “Damien Hirst and the Legacy of the Sublime in Contemporary Art and Culture”. Viva Voce: 20th February 2009.
(2007) Bram Ieven, Universiteit Leiden (Leiden University), Netherlands. “Machinic Deconstruction: Literature / Politics / Technics”. Supervisor: Professor Ernst Van Alphen. Viva voce: 22nd November 2007.
Biography
Paul Bowman studied at Leeds University, before working as a Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Bath Spa University and then Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Roehampton University, London.
He came to Cardiff University in 2008. He has been an External Examiner at PhD level (Universiteit Leiden, Middlesex University and Cardiff University), at BA level (Middlesex University) and at MA level (Kingston University). He has also acted as a Reviewer for research councils (ESRC and the Austrian Science Fund) as well as for academic journals and publishers. He has recently been appointed to the Editorial Board of Culture Machine and The Poster.
He has taught a very wide range of topics, subjects and modules, including: Mapping the Field; Studying Popular Culture; Approaches to Media and Culture; Cultural Politics; The East in the West: The Orient in Western Culture; and Dissertations.
He has formerly also designed and taught such modules as: Reading Culture; Culture and Identity; Race, Gender and Representation; From Marx to Postmodernism; Culture, Politics and Ideology since 1968 and has contributed to Cultural Policy, Visual Culture, and Research Methods.
At MA level, Paul has been convener of the module Cultural Theory and Politics, and has previously designed, convened and delivered such modules as: Cultural Theory; New Media and New Technologies; and Media, Place, Identity and Culture, as well as supervising dissertations.
As well as supervising PhDs, Paul also delivers PhD research training in cultural studies and cultural theory.