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Paul Bowman is a British academic specialising in
cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
and
media studies Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but it mos ...
. He is a Professor of Cultural Studies and Deputy Head of the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at
Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...
. In the fields of cultural studies,
film studies Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various film theory, theoretical, history of film, historical, and film criticism, critical approaches to film, cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media stud ...
, media studies and
postcolonial studies Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and thei ...
, he is author of ''Post-Marxism Versus Cultural Studies'' (
Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...
, 2007), ''Deconstructing Popular Culture'' (Palgrave, 2008), ''Theorizing
Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Hong Kong martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from ...
'' (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'' (Pluto, 2003), ''The Truth of Žižek'' (Continuum, 2007), ''Reading Ranciere'' (Continuum 2010), ''The
Rey Chow Rey Chow (born 1957) 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 Univer ...
Reader'' (
Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...
, 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 of'' ''Bruce Lee'' (Carlton, 2013). His academia.edu site (https://cardiff.academia.edu/PaulBowman) is consistently in the top 1% most viewed profiles.


Martial Arts Studies

In 2015, Bowman launched the interdisciplinary field of martial arts studies, by establishing the Martial Arts Studies Research Network, securing a research networking grant from the UK's
Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts a ...
, holding the first annual martial arts studies conference at Cardiff University, and launching the academic journal, ''Martial Arts Studies.'' Martial Arts Studies is the premiere journal of the field and is published
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
twice a year by Cardiff University Press. The journal is indexed by
Scopus Scopus is a scientific abstract and citation database, launched by the academic publisher Elsevier as a competitor to older Web of Science in 2004. The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is c ...
, the
Directory of Open Access Journals The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a website that hosts a community-curated list of open access journals, maintained by Infrastructure Services for Open Access (IS4OA). It was launched in 2003 with 300 open access journals. The miss ...
, and others. It has been seminal in establishing and developing this new research area. Bowman has organised or co-organised international martial arts studies conferences in Cardiff and other universities annually since 2015. In 2024, he and his co-editors (Alex Channon, Lauren Miller, Wayne Wong and Benjamin Judkins) founded Martial Arts Studies Association.


Awards and Honours

In 2014, Bowman was a visiting professor in the
University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...
, Slovenia. Although he does not practice this art, in 2015, Bowman was awarded an honorary blackbelt in
taekkyon Taekkyon (; ), also spelled Taekkyeon, Taekgyeon, or Taekyun, is a traditional Korean martial art. It is characterized by fluid, dynamic foot movement called ''pumbalki'', or "stepping-on-triangles". Taekkyon includes hands and feet techniques to ...
by Master Kim of the World Taekkyeon Headquarters in
Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
. In 2016, Bowman was awarded a
tewhatewha A tewhatewha is a long-handled Māori club weapon shaped like an axe. Designed to be held in two hands, the weapon comes to a mata (point) at one end and a rapa (broad, quarter-round head) at the other. The tewhatewha (pronounced ''tefa tefa'') ...
(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.


Media Appearances

Bowman has been interviewed on multiple regional, national and international TV and radio programmes. He also features prominently in the 2012 documentary '' I Am Bruce Lee,'' appears in the
BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002
documentary series,
Timeshift ''TimeShift'' is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Vivendi Games. The game was released for Windows and Xbox 360 in October/November 2007, and for PlayStation 3 in November/December. It received mi ...
(in the episode
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: The Rise of Martial Arts in Britain
), and on the
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
programme, In Living Memory (in the episode
Kung Fu
).


The Martial Arts Studies Podcast

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 (o
Podbean
and video, o
The Martial Arts Studies YouTube Channel


Education

Bowman was educated at St. Mary's Comprehensive School in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
(UK). He studied English at
Leeds University The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed ...
, 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 Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, Somerset, Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the city of Bath, and one at Corsham Court in Wiltshi ...
(2001-2003); Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at
Roehampton University The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The University traces its r ...
(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 is a style of karate, developed from various martial arts by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and is widely credited with popularizing "karate do" thr ...
when he was 13. At university, he studied
taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...
. After university, he practiced
kickboxing Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid Martial arts, martial art and Boxing (disambiguation), boxing type based on punch (combat), punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, norma ...
. He tried
aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...
and
taijiquan is a Chinese martial art. Initially developed for combat and self-defense, for most practitioners it has evolved into a sport and form of exercise. As an exercise, tai chi is performed as gentle, low-impact movement in which practitioners p ...
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 Choy Lee Fut is a Chinese martial art and wushu style, founded in 1836 by Chan Heung (陳享). Choy Li Fut was named to honor the Buddhist monk Choy Fook (蔡褔, Cai Fu) who taught him Choy Gar, and Li Yau-san (李友山) who taught him ...
kung fu. After a catastrophic ankle injury in 2009, he struggled to continue practice, and eventually switched to
escrima Arnis, also known as kali or eskrima/escrima, is the national martial art of the Philippines. These three terms are, sometimes, interchangeable in referring to traditional martial arts of the Philippines (" Filipino Martial Arts", or FMA), wh ...
. 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.


References

Living people Academics of Cardiff University Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Leeds Academics of Bath Spa University 21st-century British non-fiction writers {{UK-academic-bio-stub