Jack Bowman
Research Overview
I am a PhD researcher at the University of Warwick, supervised by Professor Daniel Branch and Dr James Poskett. I have been awarded a Departmental Scholarship to undertake my thesis, provisionally entitled Pan-African Print, Politics in Action: A Book History of the Pan-African Movement, 1930-1950.
My research centres upon the role of print in anti-colonial movements within the British Empire, particularly the Pan-African movement. It aims to look at the connections, intersections, and differences between anti-colonial movements through the lens of print.
I am interested in approaching twentieth century anti-colonial thought via the field of book history. This places the emphasis not only on the content of a book, or other printed materials, but also on the objects themselves. By examining who wrote a text, where it was scripted, printed, sold and published, and how it was printed, upon what material, with what inks, etc. the broader motivations and limitations of a text reveal themselves. Tracing a book through Robert Darnton's 'communications circuit', for example, illustrates the ideas and impact of the text in differing ways to the content of the text itself.
Previous book histories have centred upon the early modern period, with some advances into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Similarly, book histories of empire and the imperial project are only beginning to emerge. However, and as historians such as Isabel Hofmeyr and Antoinette Burton have demonstrated, book histories of empire can be valuable historiographical contributions. To this end, my research aims to engage with these recent advances and employs a book history approach within the study of the British Empire in the twentieth century.
My PhD research focuses on the Pan-African movement and its connections across the globe, centring on key individuals and their roles within the movement. By engaging with these agents via the lens of print I undertake a broader assessment of the wider anti-colonial project. In challenging both celebratory and severely reductive histories of the past my thesis seeks to not only critically engage with anti-colonial movements, but to highlight the role of print within these exchanges.
Research Interests
- Book history
- Global histories of empire
- Indian and African nationalism and political thought
- Gender, race, and caste within the imperial project
- LGBTQ+ histories
Academic Profile
2019-2022: PhD in History, University of Warwick
Supervisors: Professor Daniel BranchLink opens in a new window and Dr James PoskettLink opens in a new window
Thesis provisionally titled Pan-African Print: Politics in Action - A Book History of the Pan-African Movement, 1935-1955
2018-2019: MA in Modern History, University of Warwick
Supervisor: Dr James PoskettLink opens in a new window
Dissertation titled Editing Independence: The Political Thought and Publishing Career of V. K. Krishna Menon, 1929-1939
2015-2018: BA (Hons) in History, University of Warwick
Supervisor: Dr James PoskettLink opens in a new window
Dissertation titled Rethinking Jawaharlal Nehru and Nehruvianism for Modern Indian Political Thought: A Book History of The Discovery of India (1946)
Centres and Networks
Convenor of the Modern British History Reading GroupLink opens in a new window
Publications
Articles:
- 'The Early Political Thought and Publishing Career of V. K. Krishna Menon, 1928-1938', The Historical Journal (forthcoming)
- '‘one can love’: Richard Bruce Nugent, Fire!!, and the Harlem Renaissance', queer/disrupt, https://www.queerdisrupt.com/index.php/2021/07/01/one-can-love-richard-bruce-nugent-fire-and-the-harlem-renaissance/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, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/blog/when_the_four/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, https://www.racearchive.org.uk/mak-ras-t-makonnen-the-unrecognized-hero-of-the-pan-african-movement/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, https://www.racearchive.org.uk/researching-ras-t-makonnen-and-pan-africanism-in-manchester-at-the-ahmed-iqbal-ullah-race-centre/Link opens in a new window
Reviews:
- Review: Arthur Asseraf, Electric News in Colonial Algeria (Oxford, 2019). https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=55958Link opens in a new window
- Review: Jeremy Adelman (ed.), Empire and the Social Sciences: Global Histories of Knowledge (London, 2019). https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=55038Link opens in a new window
- Review: Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Elusive Lives: Gender, Autobiography, and the Self in Muslim South Asia (Stanford, 2018). https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53275Link opens in a new window
Podcasts:
- Podcast for queer/disrupt with producer for Shoga FilmsLink opens in a new window, Dr Robert Philipson, 'The Harlem Renaissance in Black and Pink'. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1hJK3yJSs4j8uEPDud1SWt?si=b8c423f924e6476eLink opens in a new window
Outreach:
- 'I'm a Historian' UK Black History Zone Historian project (supported by UKRI), October 2022.
Volunteered 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. https://bhm22.imhistory.uk
Conferences and Comments
- Discussant for Global History and Culture Centre seminar, University of Warwick, March 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 Europen History Research Centre seminar, University of Warwick, October 2020
'News Networks in Colonial Algeria', speaker: Arthur Asseraf (Cambridge)
Awards
2019-2023: University of Warwick, History Department Doctoral Scholarship
j.bowman@warwick.ac.uk
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Office hours:
Tuesday, 3-4pm, FAB3.36Link opens in a new window
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Twitter: @jackawbowmanLink opens in a new window
George Padmore, 'Colonial and Coloured Unity: A Programme of Action, History of the Pan-African Congress' (Manchester, 1947).
The Pan-African Federation journal Pan-Africa, Vol.1, No. 4 (1947).