Curriculum

Vitae: Dr Fiona Bowie

Current positions
Research Associate, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of
Oxford https://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-fiona-bowie
Member of Wolfson College, Oxford
PhD supervisor, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies
Honorary Treasurer and Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute, London
Founder, Afterlife Research Centre http://www.afterliferesearch.co.uk

Education
DPhil (Oxford University), Institute of Social Anthropology 1985
BA (Hons, First Class) Anthropology, University of Durham 1978
PGCE University of Wales 1987

Research interests
• Ethnography of the afterlife
• Mediumship, shamanism, spirit possession and spirit release
• Alternative forms of spiritual healing
• Anthropology of consciousness
• Religious experience
• Pilgrimage
• African religion and society (Cameroon)
• African diaspora
• Religion in Wales (current project)
• Kinship (adoption and child circulation)
• Gender and spirituality

Former employment and affiliations
2019: Panel Member, ICREA (Catalan Research Council)
2016-2018: Panel Member European Research Council
2012-2018 Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Department of Theology & Religious Studies,
King’s College London
2010-2012: Honorary Research Fellow, University of Bristol, UK
2002-2010: Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Bristol, UK
1993-2002: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies and
Anthropology, University of Wales Lampeter.

Visiting lectureships
Visiting Research Fellow in the Carter Woodson Institute for African and African
American Affairs at the University of Virginia (2003-2008)
The University of Virginia, USA (2002/3) (Department of Religious Studies, with guest
lectures in Gender Studies)
Clare Hall, Cambridge (Visiting scholar, 1999)
University of Linköping, Sweden, Lectures in Social Anthropology and Feminist Theology
(1996, 1997)

Examining
External Examining: I have acted as external examiner for undergraduate and Masters
degrees in the following institutions:
Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kent (MA in Cosmology and
Divination)
University of Southampton (BA and BSc in Social Science)

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Department of Anthropology, University of Durham (Stockton Campus), (BA and BSc in
Health Studies.)
Department of Religious Studies, University of Stirling, (BA and MA in Religious Studies)
Department of Anthropology, University of Kent, (BA and BSc Anthropology).
Department of Religious Studies, University of Lancaster, (MA in Religious Studies)
Faculty of Social Science, Liverpool Hope University, (BA in Women’s Studies)
Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales Trinity St David, (BA
Theology and Religious Studies)

PhD/DPhil External Examiner: Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, UCL, King’s College
London, Leeds and Bradford, UWTSD.
Internal Examiner: UWL, Bristol.

Recent Publications
2019 ‘Negotiating Blurred Boundaries: Ethnographic and Methodological
Considerations’. In George D. Chryssides and Stephen E. Gregg (eds) The Insider/Outsider
Debate: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion. Equinox: Sheffield, pp.110-129.

2016 ‘How to Study Religious Experience: Methodological Reflections on the Study of the
Paranormal’. In Bettina Schmidt (ed.) The Study of Religious Experience. Equinox (pp.13-
32).

2015 ‘Miracles’ (pp.161-166), ‘Reincarnation’ (pp.254-256), ‘Survival After Death’
(pp.312-318). In Matt Cardin (ed.) Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from
Alchemy to Zombies. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio.

2014 “Believing Impossible Things: Scepticism and Scientific Enquiry’. In Jack Hunter and
David Luke (eds) Talking with the Spirits: Ethnographies from between the Worlds.,
Brisbane, Australia: Daily Grail Publishing, pp.19-56.

2013 ‘Building Bridges, Dissolving Boundaries: Towards a Methodology for the
Ethnographic Study of the Afterlife, Mediumship and Spiritual Beings’. J Am Acad Relig
(2013) 81 (3): 698-733 first published online August 2, 2013

2013 ‘History of Cross Country Adoption and Fostering’, Oxford Bibliographies in
Childhood Studies. OUP.

2012 ‘Devising Methods for the Ethnographic Study of the Afterlife: Cognition, Empathy
and Engagement’. In Jack Hunter (ed.) Paranthropology. Bristol: Paranthropology (pp.99-
106).

2011 ‘Miracle in Traditional Religion’ in Graham Twelftree (ed.) The Cambridge
Companion to Miracles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (pp.122-137).

2009 'Anthropology of Religion', Chapter 1 in The Blackwell Companion to the Study of
Religion ed. Robert Segal, Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell.

2009 'The challenge of multi-sited ethnography' and 'Azi since Conrau' (with Michael
Ndobegang) in Ian Fowler and Verkijika G. Fanso (eds.) Encounter, Transformation, and
Identity: Peoples of the Western Cameroon Borderlands, 1891-2000, Oxford & New York:
Berghahn.

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Invited talks 2014-19
Arthur Findlay College, Spiritualists' National Union Science Week
11th February 2014. Special guest speaker.
‘Towards and Anthropology of the Afterlife’

Unitarian General Assembly, Whittlebury Hall, Northamptonshire
14th April 2014. Guest speaker.
‘The Origins of Religion and Experience of the Paranormal’

Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred: Open Lecture. Canterbury Christ Church
7th June 2014.
‘Ethnographic Approaches to the Afterlife’.

King’s College London/LSE Seminar, panel member
(Re)turning to the wonder of non-dualism: Theology and anthropology in conversation
about biblical, non-western, and scientific cosmologies
15th May 2014, Virginia Woolf Building (22 Kingsway), 3.01
Convenor: Prof. Oliver Davies, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s
College London
‘Ontology, Experience and the Anthropology of Religion’

The Study of Religious Experience in Lampeter. Alister Hardy Research Centre, 4th July
2014. Key note address.
‘How to Study Religious Experience: Methodological reflections on the study of the afterlife.’

British Association for the Study of Religion, Milton Keynes, 3-5 September 2014
Presentation for round table discussion on Insider and Outsider Approaches to Faith
Communities: ‘Engaging with Others or with “The Other” in Social Research’.
Key note address on panel Research among spirits, ghosts and deities – How to study non-
ordinary realities, organised by Bettina Schmidt and David Wilson.
‘Transformational Encounters with Non-Ordinary Realities’

Scientific and Medical Network Conference, Frontiers of Science and Spirituality: The
SCM Approach to Holistic Education. ‘The Role of Experience in the Origin and
Development of Religion’. 1.11.2014, Imperial College, London.

King’s College London Graduate Research Day, 26.11.14
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Research Day for Theology and Ministry students.
‘Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research on Religion’.

British Association for the Study of Religion Postgraduate and Early Career Workshop,
8.1.15. ‘The Ethics of Representation’ Goldsmiths College, London

Sophia Centre Lecture, Trinity St David University, WebX lecture, 12.2.15.
‘Transformational Encounters with Non-Ordinary Realities’.

Immortality and Human Finitude: Life after Death? Perspectives from Philosophy,
Theology, Anthropology and Literature. Public Symposium funded by the Templeton
Foundation, University of Leeds 20.3.15. ‘Experiential Themes in Afterlife Narratives’.

Exploring the Extraordinary, 4-6 December 2015, York University. Invited lecture on ‘The
Psychic Self’.

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IUAES 2016, Dubrovnik 4-9.5.16 Keynote talk in panel on ‘The ontological turn – new
ethnographic approaches, theories and analysis of spirit mediumship, shamanism,
religious ritual and discarnate phenomena’ convened by Fabian Graham. Paper title:
‘Ontology and the Other: Reconfiguring Anthropology for the Anthropocene’.

Wild or Domesticated: Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Helsinki, 20-22
September 2016. Convenor of workshop panel: Discernment: Recognising the Presence of
Spirits. Paper entitled ‘Spirit Release as Therapy: An Alternative Western Tradition’.

Espiritual medias and transnational mediumship: on skills and scale of new communities
of practice. Invited symposium, University of Cologne Institute of Advanced Studies,
September 25-26, 2017.
Paper on ‘Spirit Release Therapies: Healing Networks and Mediumistic Practices in
Contemporary Britain’.

The Open University, Milton Keynes. Contemporary Religion in Historical Perspective:
Publics and Performances, February 19-21, 2018. Session on Interfaith. ‘Interfaith and
Intercultural Spirituality in a Faith-Based Organisation’.

The Futures of Magic. Symposium, The Open University and SOAS. Held at SOAS, London,
29.6.2018. Invited speaker: ‘The Dialogue between experience and interpretation:
Paradigm shifts at the junction of science and the occult.’

The Sophia Centre Alumni Lectures 2018: Explorations in Ontological Anthropology:
Exploring Place, Presence and Power. Online subscription lectures (Zoom).
1. 31.10.18, A Transpersonal Anthropology: Locating the Boundaries.
2. 7.11.18, The Power of Place
3. 14.11.18, Inclined Planes - Traversing the Different Forms of Space and Being

Skill and Scale in Transnational Mediumship II: Workshop, University of Cologne
Institute of Advanced Studies, Part II. 13/14 December 2018. ‘Voices, possession and
healing: Spirit release therapists and their clients’.

Social Anthropologies of the Welsh: Past and Present. A joint symposium organized by
the Learned Society of Wales and RAI, 2 May 2019, Cardiff University. Invited speaker:
‘Anthropological Perspectives on Religious Belief in Wales’.

South East University Nanjing, P.R. China. Conference title: ‘International Dialogue: How
do we live together in the Internet Age’ May 18, 2019. Invited speaker. ‘Intercultural
Dialogue and the Construction of Spiritual Community in the Internet Era: An
Anthropological Perspective’.

International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC)
Religion/Water/Climate: Changing Cultures and Landscapes
13-16 June 2019, University College Cork, Ireland. Panel organizer: Anthropological
Understandings of Religion, Environment and Climate Change in the UK.
Paper title: ‘Hafren/Severn: From River Goddess to Ecological Threat’