Marion Bowman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marion Bowman (born 1955) is a British academic working on the borders of religious studies and folklore and ethnology. She is Professor Emerita in Religious Studies, The Open University[1] where she was previously Professor of Vernacular Religion.[2]
Bowman is a long-standing researcher into New Age and alternative spiritualities.[3] 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".[4]
Bowman began her university education at Glasgow University but moved to Lancaster University to study under Prof Ninian Smart.[3]
Bowman completed her MA in Folklore at Memorial University, Newfoundland: her dissertation was on devotion to St Gerard Majella in Newfoundland.[5] She completed her PhD at the University of Glamorgan in 1998 on 'Vernacular Religion and Contemporary Spirituality: Studies in Religious Experience and Expression'.[6]
Career
From 1990 to 2000 Bowman was based at Bath Spa University in the department of Study of Religions.[1]
In 2000 Bowman joined the Religious Studies department at The Open University. She was Head of Department between 2010 and 2013.[1]
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".[7]
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.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10]
Recognition
Bowman has been a visiting lecturer or professor at a number of European universities, including the University of Oslo, Norway;[11] University of Bayreuth, Germany; University of Pecs, Hungary and University of Tartu, Estonia.[12]
She is a former president of the British Association for the Study of Religions and a former Vice-President of both the European Association for the Study of Religions[13] and Theology and Religious Studies UK.[1]
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]
