Formerly he served as Vice President for
Academic Affairs and Professor of International Affairs
at Hollins College. In spring 1996 he was in residence at
the Center for the Humanities and Public Policy (University
of Virginia) as a Research Fellow. Prior to his time in
Virginia, he held several administrative positions at Colby
College in Maine, including Director of East Asian Studies,
Director of Black Studies, Director of Colby-in-Cork (Ireland),
and Professor and Chair of the Department of Government.
Since 1981 he has been an Associate in Research at the Reischauer
Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University.
Bowen earned his B.A. at Wabash College (Indiana)
in 1969, and a master’s degree at the University of
Michigan in 1970. He completed his doctoral degree in political
science from the University of British Columbia in 1977
and was awarded a Ministry of Education (Japan) Post-Doctoral
Fellowship.
Bowen is author of Rebellion and Democracy
in Meiji Japan (University of California Press, 1980, pbk.
1984), Innocence is Not Enough: The Life and Death of Herbert
Norman (Douglas & McIntyre, 1986; M.E. Sharpe, 1988)
and Japan’s Dysfunctional Democracy (M.E. Sharpe,
2003). In 1984 he edited E.H. Norman: His Life and Scholarship
(University of Toronto Press). He is the author of many
book and journal articles dealing with such issues as human
rights in Japan, Japan’s foreign policy, academic
freedom in the United States, and US foreign policy.
Bowen has traveled to Japan to conduct research
more than a dozen times over the past twenty years. Bowen
has also conducted research in England, Ireland, Vietnam,
Nicaragua, Canada, and Egypt. In 1993 he was a member of
the Atlantic Council delegation that visited NATO headquarters
to discuss the future of NATO in the post Cold War period.
He has lectured at Harvard University, Princeton University,
Indiana University, the University of Toronto, and the universities
of Heidelberg and Munich, among others. He is also a member
of the International House of Japan.
Bowen has served on various public service
boards, including Mohonk Consultations, Pattern for Progress,
the Gerontology Institute, and the Board of Trustees of
New York College (Athens, Greece). He was a member of the
Presidents’ Network for International Education and
the Commission on International Education of the American
Council on Education; and chaired the Committee on Global
Priorities and Responsibilities for the American Association
of State Colleges and Universities.
