José Antonio Bowen

José Antonio Bowen (born March 11, 1962) is an American author and academic. He served as the 11th president of Goucher College from 2014 to 2019.

José Antonio Bowen
Bowen in March 2018
11th President of Goucher College
In office 2014 – 2019
Preceded by	Sanford J. Ungar
Succeeded by	Kent Devereaux
Personal details
Born	11 March 1962 Woodland, California
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Kimberly
Children	1
Residence	Dallas, Texas
Alma mater	Stanford University (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.)
Occupation	College administrator Academic Author
Website	josebowen.com

Early life and education

Bowen was born in Woodland, California to Wayne Bowen and Celina Antonio. He lived until the age of six outside of Madrid and Barcelona.[1][2] He also spent parts of his childhood in Atlanta and Italy.[3] When Bowen was six, his family moved to Fresno, California, where he resided for the remainder of his childhood.[1][4] Bowen is of Ashkenazi descent on his father's side and Afro-Cuban on his mother's.[1][5] In high school, Bowen was the valedictorian of class, graduating with a 4.0 GPA.[1] He went on to attend Stanford University and graduated with a bachelor's in chemistry and two master's in music composition and humanities. Bowen earned his joint doctorate in musicology and humanities in 1994.[1][5][6]

Career in academia

Bowen began his academic career in 1982 serving a lecturer at his alma mater, Stanford University.[6] In 1994, Bowen was selected as the founding director of the Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music at University of Southampton.[6] He subsequently became the first endowed Caestecker Chair of Music at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, Bowen created and directed the Department of Performing Arts. From 2004 to 2006, Bowen was the Dean of Fine Arts of Miami University.[7] In 2006, Bowen became the Dean of Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.[6]

Bowen was elected in 2014 by the Goucher College Board of Trustees to become the eleventh president of the college, succeeding Sanford J. Ungar.[2][8] During his tenure, Bowen has undertaken initiatives to redefine the school's admissions process to encourage greater diversity, reshape the curriculum, build upon the campus's infrastructure, and renovate and expand existing facilities.[9][10] In 2017, Bowen offered to forgo a salary increase and extended his contract with Goucher through June 2022.[11][12] In October 2018, Bowen announced that he would break his contract and resign as president of Goucher on June 30, 2019.[13] He was succeeded by Bryan Coker (Acting President) and then Kent Devereaux.[14] He later told Forbes in an interview that he left due to feeling "burned out" managing a small college facing financial challenges, saying, "[f]ive years was a long time to be at the point of the spear and in crisis mode.”[15]

Music and written works

Bowen is an experienced jazz pianist[16] and has himself composed many Jewish-inspired musical pieces such as a jazz Shabbat, a fusion of jazz and klezmer influences, and Hanukkah music.[3][5] Bowen has performed his jazz-style Shabbat at synagogues.[17] He also composed a Jewish choral music work titled "Voice from the Attic" that includes text from Anne Frank's diary.[5]

Bowen served on the executive committee and as a track note writer for Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology.[16][18] He was also a founding board member of the National Recording Preservation Board for the Library of Congress.[19] Bowen has written more than 100 scholarly articles[20] and edited the 2003 Cambridge Companion to Conducting.[21] His book "Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning" was published in 2012,[22][23] and earned him the 2014 Frederic W. Ness Book Award.[24] In 2017, he co-authored the companion book "Teaching Naked Techniques: A Practical Guide to Designing Better Classes."[25]

Honors and awards

Bowen was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[19] In 2010, he was honored by Stanford University as a Distinguished Alumni Scholar.[19] Bowen was awarded the 8th annual Ernest L. Boyer Award in 2018 by the New American Colleges and Universities.[26]

Personal life

Bowen and his wife, Kimberly,[4][6] have one child, a daughter named Naomi.[4]

References

1. Pinheiro, Kristen K. "Multifaceted Visionary" (PDF). The Goucher Quarterly.
2. "Board of Trustees announces Jose Bowen as 11th president". The Quindecim. April 22, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
3. "Liturgy with a Latin beat Georgetown University 'jazz guy' updates Shabbat service". www.dallasjewishweek.com. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
4. Brown, Sloane. "Take 10 with Jose Antonio Bowen, Goucher College president". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
5. "Playing a New Tune". jewishtimes.com. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
6. "Jose Antonio Bowen is leaving as dean of Meadows School of the Arts to become president at Goucher College". Dallas News. March 12, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
7. "History | Department of Architecture + Interior Design | CCA - Miami University". miamioh.edu. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
8. Sun, Liz Bowie, The Baltimore. "SMU arts dean named Goucher's next president". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
9. "Colleges Make It Easier for Students to Show, Not Tell, in Their Applications". Retrieved August 13, 2018.
10. "A Conversation With Goucher's New President". Retrieved August 13, 2018.
11. Prudente, Tim. "Goucher College president forgoes raise, agrees to contract extension". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
12. "Goucher president receives five-year contract extension". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
13. Bowie, Sarah Meehan, Liz. "Goucher College president to step down in 2019". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
14. Bowie, Liz (June 13, 2019). "Goucher College selects Kent Devereaux as new president. Touts his strong liberal arts, business background". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
15. Schifrin, Matt. "Dawn Of The Dead: For Hundreds Of The Nation's Private Colleges, It's Merge Or Perish". Forbes. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
16. "Jose Bowen and the Visions of Jazz | Art&Seek". Art&Seek. April 5, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
17. "Jewish Jazz Junkie". Washington City Paper. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
18. "The Smithsonian takes a new look at Jazz - America's musical invention - SMU". www.smu.edu. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
19. College, Goucher. "Goucher College Announces Jose Antonio Bowen as Incoming President". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
20. A., Davis, James (2016). The Music History Classroom. Brookfield: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1317023500. OCLC 941696425.
21. The Cambridge companion to conducting. Bowen, José Antonio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. ISBN 0521527910. OCLC 51647733.CS1 maint: others (link)
22. Lewin, Tamar (October 31, 2014). "A Conversation With Goucher's New President". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
23. Antonio, Bowen, José (2012). Teaching naked : how moving technology out of your college classroom will improve student learning (First ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint. ISBN 978-1118238080. OCLC 778417681.
24. "Teaching Naked by SMU Meadows Dean José Antonio Bowen Receives National Award - Meadows School of the Arts - SMU". www.smu.edu. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
25. Antonio, Bowen, José (January 24, 2017). Teaching naked techniques : a practical guide to designing better classes. Watson, C. Edward. San Francisco, CA. ISBN 9781119136118. OCLC 956351067.
26. "José Antonio Bowen Accepts NAC&U Ernest L. Boyer Award". NAC&U: New American Colleges and Universities. February 1, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.

External links

• Official website
• Goucher College profile