Filming oral histories of trauma and conflict: three case studies
Al-Mulla Taylor R, Bowman S & Bromage S (2025) Filming oral histories of trauma and conflict: three case studies. Oral History Society Festival 2024, Online, 16.01.2025.
Lecturer in British Political History
History D25, Pathfoot Building, Division of History, Heritage and Politics, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA
Stephen completed his undergraduate and Masters degrees at Stirling before going on to complete his PhD at Northumbria University in Newcastle in 2014. He has worked in the early modern period but has since largely settled in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to previous spells working at Stirling, he has taught at Northumbria University, Newcastle University, Durham University, and at the Centre for History at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
Divisional Chief Examiner
External Examiner, Institute for Northern Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands
University of the Highlands and Islands
Advisory Board Member, Scottish Political Archive
Founder and Co-Chair, Creative Histories Research Group, University of Stirling
History UK Steering Committee Member
Broadly speaking, Stephen studies the history of modern Scotland's place in the world. His current research focuses on the historical cultural and political connections between Scotland and the US, specifically through a study of the cultural memory of the Scots-born 'Father of the US Navy' John Paul Jones and another project on the transatlantic histories and historiographies of Glasgow and New York. He also has an interest in 'creative history', and led the research, writing, and production of the unique film and article '"An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length": A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic', published by UCL Press and first screened at the MacRobert Arts Centre in 2024. This project was 'Highly Commended' by the British Records Association as part of its competition for the 2024 Janette Harley Prize and was highlighted in newsletters by the National Archives, Kew, and by the Scottish Library and Information Council as among the most notable developments in the archive sector in 2024.
Stephen has conducted research across Britain and the US and has published on Anglo-American relations and politics. His 2018 book with Edinburgh University Press - The Pilgrims Society and Public Diplomacy, 1895-1945 - focuses on propaganda, cultural diplomacy, and networking between British and American elites in the first half of the twentieth century. Stephen has also published with the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, the Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, and History Scotland. He was the 2013 winner of the Transatlantic Studies Association's Donald Cameron Watt Prize.
Stephen is currently working on the following projects:
Co-editing with Kieran Taylor (Queen Margaret University), and writing for, the book project 'Portable City: Glasgow’s Transatlantic Connections.' This book is under contract with Peter Lang and will be published as part of the City as Place: Emotions, Experiences and Meanings series, edited by the University of Glasgow's Rebecca Madgin and Simon Fraser University's Nicolas Kenny.
Collaborating with Gyorgy Toth on the project 'The Memory of John Paul Jones in Anglo-American Relations, c.1900s-c.1990s.' This project has in in part been supported by a grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The Memory of John Paul Jones in Anglo-American Relations, c. 1900s-c. 1990s.
PI: Dr Stephen Bowman
Funded by: The Royal Society of Edinburgh
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Filming oral histories of trauma and conflict: three case studies
Al-Mulla Taylor R, Bowman S & Bromage S (2025) Filming oral histories of trauma and conflict: three case studies. Oral History Society Festival 2024, Online, 16.01.2025.
Presentation / Talk
Al-Mulla R, Bowman S & Bromage S (2024) History and Archives in Practice summer lunchtime talk series: In Conversation with the University of Stirling’s Pandemic Oral History Project team. History and Archives in Practice summer lunchtime talk series. History and Archives in Practice 2024, 29.07.2024-29.07.2024. https://royalhistsoc.org/history-and-archives-in-practice-lunchtime-talk-series-now-available/
Book Chapter
‘An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length’: A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Bowman S, Al-Mulla R, Bromage S, Armstrong D & Pruente K (2024) ‘An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length’: A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic. In: Paper Trails. London: UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.9781787359253.37
'An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length' - A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Bowman S & Bromage S 'An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length' - A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic. In: Scottish Confederation of University & Research Libraries Annual Conference, University of Stirling, 05.06.2024.
Other
Video
An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length: A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic
Bowman S (2024) An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length: A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic. [Video] 13.03.2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OTwLkBeyRM&list=PLddhSH7bW0pW9yQrz5lXsLCqHbFvjruoH&index=5
Commentary
Tracing "The Most Buried Man in the World": John Paul Jones, Scotland and the US
Bowman S (2023) Tracing "The Most Buried Man in the World": John Paul Jones, Scotland and the US. History Scotland, 23 (6), pp. 21-23. https://www.historyscotland.com/store/back-issues/history-scotland/history-scotland-vol23issue6-novdec23-issue-134-1/
Video
The Memory of John Paul Jones in Scottish-American Relations, 1890s-1970s
Toth G & Bowman S (2023) The Memory of John Paul Jones in Scottish-American Relations, 1890s-1970s. [Video on Youtube.com] 16.10.2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6O8D-aB88
Other
Portable City: Modern Glasgow’s Transatlantic Connections Workshop
Bowman S & Taylor K (2023) Portable City: Modern Glasgow’s Transatlantic Connections Workshop.
The Memory of John Paul Jones in Anglo-American Relations, 1900-1950s
Bowman S (2022) The Memory of John Paul Jones in Anglo-American Relations, 1900-1950s. Transatlantic Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Kent, 04.07.2022-06.07.2022.
Climate and Public Health in the City, c. 1860-1930: a comparative study across the Atlantic
Bowman S (2022) Climate and Public Health in the City, c. 1860-1930: a comparative study across the Atlantic. Historical Health and Inequality: Epidemics, Environmental Factors and Socioeconomic Conditions Symposium, House for an Art Lover, Glasgow, 14.06.2022.
Article
Stirling University Pandemic Oral History Project: “A Constructive Response to a Destructive Event”
Bowman S, Al-Mulla R & Bromage S (2022) Stirling University Pandemic Oral History Project: “A Constructive Response to a Destructive Event”. History Scotland, 22 (2), pp. 44-45. https://www.historyscotland.com/store/back-issues/history-scotland
Bowman S (2021) The Scottish-American Association, 1919-1923: A Case Study into Scottish and American Elite Connections after the First World War. Scottish History Forum, Chicago Scots, Online, 06.11.2021.
Website Content
Video walking tour: Dr Stephen Bowman and Dr Gyorgy Toth - Glasgow Transatlantic City
Toth G & Bowman S (2021) Video walking tour: Dr Stephen Bowman and Dr Gyorgy Toth - Glasgow Transatlantic City. History at Stirling [Canvas site with video] 16.05.2021. https://canvas.stir.ac.uk/courses/8306/pages/dr-stephen-bowman-and-dr-gyorgy-toth-glasgow-transatlantic-city
Audio
The Pilgrims Society and British-US relationships, 1895-1945
Bowman S (2021) The Pilgrims Society and British-US relationships, 1895-1945. [Podcast] 11.01.2021. https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cwdlancaster/episodes/The-Pilgrims-Society-and-British-US-relationships-1895-1945-with-Dr-Stephen-Bowman-elfjd9
Book Review
Book review: ‘Dangerous seats: parliamentary violence in the United Kingdom’
Bowman S (2020) Book review: ‘Dangerous seats: parliamentary violence in the United Kingdom’. Parliament, Estates and Representation, 41 (1), pp. 127-128.
The Scottish-American Association, 1919-23: a study in failure
Bowman S (2020) The Scottish-American Association, 1919-23: a study in failure. Scottish Association for the Study of America Annual Conference, University of Dundee, 29.02.2020.
Article
The Scottish-American Association, 1919-1923: a study in failure
Bowman S (2019) The Scottish-American Association, 1919-1923: a study in failure. Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 39 (2), pp. 166-192. https://doi.org/10.3366/jshs.2019.0275
Elite non-governmental UK-US public diplomacy in the 1900s
Bowman S (2019) Elite non-governmental UK-US public diplomacy in the 1900s. Transatlantic American Studies Workshop: Sources and Approaches, University of Glasgow Library Special Collections, 23.10.2019.
Article
‘The Un-Peaceful Peace: Scotland and the US in the post-war world’
Bowman S (2019) ‘The Un-Peaceful Peace: Scotland and the US in the post-war world’. History Scotland, 19 (3).
Authored Book
Pilgrims Society and Public Diplomacy, 1895-1945
Bowman S (2018) Pilgrims Society and Public Diplomacy, 1895-1945. Edinburgh Studies in Anglo-American Relations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-pilgrims-society-and-public-diplomacy-1895-1945.html
Book Chapter
Bowman S (2016) 'By hammer in hand all arts do stand'. The Protection and Projection of Craft Privilege in the Early Modern Scottish Burgh. In: Buchanan K & Dean LHS (eds.) Medieval and Early Modern Representations of Authority in Scotland and the British Isles. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 253-272. https://www.routledge.com/Medieval-and-Early-Modern-Representations-of-Authority-in-Scotland-and/Buchanan-Dean/p/book/9781472424488
Article
MacRaild DM, Ellis S & Bowman S (2014) Interdependence day and Magna Charta: James Hamilton's public diplomacy in the Anglo-world, 1907–1940s. Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 12 (2), pp. 140-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794012.2014.900967
Article
Bowman S (2014) An Englishman abroad and an American lawyer in Europe: Harry Brittain, James Beck and the Pilgrims Society during the First World War. Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 12 (3), pp. 258-281. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794012.2014.928027
Stephen coordinates the following undergraduate modules:
HISU9B6: From Glasgow to New York - A Modern History of the World's Greatest Cities. HISU9X5: History Dissertation Preparation for Combined Degrees.
In addition to dissertation supervision, Stephen also has teaching responsibilities on HISU9S3: Reputations in History, HISU9B1: The Making of Modern Britain, and HISU9X4: Back to the Future - Putting History and Heritage to Work.
Stephen is happy to supervise PhDs and Masters dissertations on topics falling broadly within modern Scottish and British history from a transnational perspective, the history of Anglo-American relations, political and international elite networks, cultural diplomacy, and urban history in Britain and North America, and is also keen to work with students interested in adopting experimental and creative approaches.
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy