Dr Jack Bowman
Research Overview
I am a historian of anti-colonial visual media and a Teaching Fellow in Modern History. My first monograph, entitled Writing against Empire, applies a book history approach to twentieth-century empire and in particular the Pan-African movement of 1930s and 1940s Britain.
My research centres upon the role of political publishing and cultural communication in anti-colonial movements and looks at the connections, intersections, and differences between varying projects, mediums, and politics from across the imperial world. I have written about the editorial career of Indian independence activist V. K. Krishna Menon and the role of Pan-African journals under Guyanese activist Ras T. Makonnen.
I co-curated an exhibition entitled 'Cold War and 'Other Narratives'' in collaboration with the Imperial War Museums that opened at Dilston Grove in early 2026. I exhibited my own art-piece Mapping the colonial camera within this exhibition, and discuss the process in a recent peer-reviewed article published by PARSE.
I am currently working on a new book project focusing on the 'feeling' of solidarity within cross-imperial anti-colonial activism in early twentieth-century Europe, centring on the League Against Imperialism. This short-lived anti-colonial activist group counted many interwar internationalists as members, such as independent India's first prime-minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indonesia's first president Sukarno, Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta, and millionaire communist media baron Willi Münzenberg, as well as well-known public figures like physicist Albert Einstein and author Upton Sinclair.
Publications
Monographs:
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
- 'The Archive as an Emotional Body: Decolonial Narratives within the Imperial War Museums’ Archive', PARSE.Link opens in a new window (Platform for Artistic Research Sweden) (2026, forthcoming)
Other Writings:
- '‘one can love’: Richard Bruce Nugent, Fire!!, and the Harlem Renaissance', queer/disrupt.Link opens in a new window
- '‘When the four corners of this cocoon collide’: A Brief Global Overview of Pan-Africanism, 1788-Present', Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick. Link opens in a new window
- '‘Mak’: Ras T Makonnen, the unrecognized hero of the Pan-African Movement', Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre and Education Trust, Manchester. Link opens in a new window
- 'Researching Ras T. Makonnen and Pan-Africanism in Manchester at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre' written as part of their Black History month programme, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre and Education Trust, Manchester.Link opens in a new window
Reviews:
- Review: Thy Phu, Erina Duganne, and Andrea Noble (eds.), Cold War Camera (Durham, 2023)Link opens in a new window.
- Review: Theo Williams, Making the Revolution Global: Black Radicalism and the British Socialist Movement before Decolonization (London, 2022)Link opens in a new window.
- Review: Arthur Asseraf, Electric News in Colonial Algeria (Oxford, 2019)Link opens in a new window.
- Review: Jeremy Adelman (ed.), Empire and the Social Sciences: Global Histories of Knowledge (London, 2019)Link opens in a new window.
- Review: Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Elusive Lives: Gender, Autobiography, and the Self in Muslim South Asia (Stanford, 2018).Link opens in a new window
Podcasts/Video:
- Podcast for the Warwick History HourLink opens in a new window, student outreach radio programme, 'Pan Africanism with Dr Jack Bowman'.Link opens in a new window
- Academic Comment for section on Brutalist Architecture for rewind.Link opens in a new window's Pathways to the PastLink opens in a new window documentary
- Podcast for queer/disrupt with producer for Shoga FilmsLink opens in a new window, Dr Robert Philipson, 'The Harlem Renaissance in Black and Pink'.Link opens in a new window
Outreach
- Co-Curator, Dilston Gallery, Southwark Park Galleries, February 2026.
Co-curated the 'Cold War and Other Narratives' exhibitionLink opens in a new window, and exhibited own original visual piece, Dilston Gallery, Southwark Park Galleries, opened February 2026.
- Academic Advisor and Supporting Research Fellow, IWM North, January-October 2025.
Consulted for IWM North's 'Big Picture ShowLink opens in a new window' entitled 'The Roads We Walked: The Fifth Pan-African CongressLink opens in a new window' to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the 1945 Pan-African Congress, opened October 2025.
- Academic Advisor, Imperial War Museums, January-October 2025.
Consulted on the exhibition 'Emergency Exits: The Fight for Independence in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus'Link opens in a new window, opened October 2025.
- Consultant author for BrillderLink opens in a new window, May 2023-January 2025.
Worked as a consultant author for Brillder, creating bespoke history learning resources for GCSE and A-Level students who aspire to attend university.
Acted as the historian for George Padmore in online question and answer sessions with school children aged 10-18, speaking about the role of Black activists and figures in British history.
Academic Profile
2024-present: Teaching Fellow in Modern History, University of Warwick
- Co-convenor and lecturer for HI180 - Britain in the Twentieth Century: A Social HistoryLink opens in a new window
- Seminar tutor and guest lecturer for HI2D4 - Race, Racism, and Resistance in Modern BritainLink opens in a new window
- Seminar tutor and guest lecturer for HI177 - A History of Africa from 1800Link opens in a new window
- Teaching Fellow Representative for Social Inclusion and Diversity CommitteeLink opens in a new window
2024, July: Lecturer, Warwick Summer School, University of Warwick
2023-2024: Sessional Tutor in History, University of Warwick
2022-2023: Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant in History, University of Warwick
2019-2023: PhD in History, University of Warwick, supervisors: Professor Daniel BranchLink opens in a new window & Dr James PoskettLink opens in a new window
2018-2019: MA in Modern History, University of Warwick
2015-2018: BA (Hons) in History, University of Warwick
Research Interests
- Book history
- Global histories of empire
- Histories of anti-colonialism
- History of emotions
- History of political thought
- Queer histories
- Visual media and photography
Centres and Memberships
Fellow of the HEALink opens in a new window (FHEA)
Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical SocietyLink opens in a new window
Convenor of the Modern British History Reading GroupLink opens in a new window
Member of the Global History and Culture CentreLink opens in a new window, University of Warwick
Member of the Manuscript and Print Cultures Research GroupLink opens in a new window, University of Warwick
Postgraduate Student, European History Research CentreLink opens in a new window, University of Warwick
Conferences and Comments
- Discussant for Global South Network seminar, University of Leicester, May 2026.
'An Anatomy of Worldmaking: Sukarno and Anticolonialism from post-Bandung IndonesiaLink opens in a new window', speaker: Say Jye Quah (University of Cambridge)
- Discussant for Global History and Culture Centre seminar, University of Warwick, November 2023.
'Knowledge Frontiers: The Sixth Pan African Congress and the Literature of Resource Sovereignty', speaker: Christine Okoth (KCL)
- Warwick Postgraduate Conference, University of Warwick, May 2022.
Paper entitled 'Printing Pan-Africanism: The Black Jacobins and the Early Political Thought of C.L.R. James'
- ECR Workshop 'Mobile Bodies' (in conjunction with Prof. Radhika Singha's (JNU) visit to Warwick), University of Warwick, May 2022.
Paper entitled 'V. K. Krishna Menon: An Editor in Britain'
- Discussant for European History Research Centre seminar, University of Warwick, October 2020
'News Networks in Colonial Algeria', speaker: Arthur Asseraf (Cambridge)
Awards
April 2026: Nominated for a Warwick Award for Personal Tutoring Excellence (WAPTELink opens in a new window)
January 2025: One of two articles 'highly commended' in The Historical Journal's ECR article prize
2019-2023: University of Warwick, History Department Doctoral Scholarship
Past Teaching
2025/26
Convenor of HI180 - Britain in the Twentieth Century: A Social HistoryLink opens in a new window
Convenor of HI2D4 - Race, Racism, and Resistance in Modern BritainLink opens in a new window
Convenor of HI2G7 - Contemporary Britain in Historical Perspective (WIISP module)Link opens in a new window
Other roles include:
Academic Writing Adviser
Teaching Fellow Representative for Social Inclusion and Diversity CommitteeLink opens in a new window
2024/25
HI153 - Making of the Modern WorldLink opens in a new window
2023/24
HI153 - Making of the Modern WorldLink opens in a new window
2022/23
HI180 - Britain in the Twentieth Century: A Social HistoryLink opens in a new window
HI153 - Making of the Modern WorldLink opens in a new window
jack.a.w.bowman@warwick.ac.uk
Office hours (term time):
FAB3.55Link opens in a new window
Thursdays, 1-2pm (in-person)
Tuesdays, 2-3pm (online)
Twitter: @DrJackBowmanLink opens in a new window
Jack Bowman, Mapping the colonial camera (2026) installation, Dilston Grove, Southwark Park Galleries. Photography by Studio Mitsi Moulson.
George Padmore, 'Colonial and Coloured Unity: A Programme of Action, History of the Pan-African Congress' (Manchester, 1947).
League Against Imperialism Brussels Congress 1927. (Source: Louis Gibarti (Hrsg.), Das Flammenzeichen vom Palais Egmont, Neuer Deutscher Verlag, Berlin).
Amy Ashwood-Garvey chairs a panel at the Fifth Pan-African Congress, Manchester, October 1945. Image from the Black History and Culture Collection courtesy of Getty Images.