PROFILE

BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE

PROFESSOR BOB NOWLAN

I work as a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and have done so since the start of the fall 1997 semester. My primary areas of interest as a teacher-scholar include critical theory; cinema and media studies/critical studies in film, video, and moving-image culture; critical culture studies; popular music cultures; gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-and-queer studies/critical studies in sexuality and gender; Scottish, Irish, and post-WWII British cultural studies; mystery and detective fiction; and writing screenplays and other experimental performance pieces as well as speculative reflections.

I have been actively involved in many organizations, causes, and movements on the "progressive left" ever since I was a young boy. This political activity has been a significant part of my life and a major factor in shaping who I am and what I am about.

In my scholarly pursuits I work from a Humanist Marxist position. I conceive of Marxism as a philosophy and politics of freedom. Socialism, as I see it, represents the international revolutionary movement of self-emancipation of the exploited working class (the vast majority of the world's population), and Marxism represents the critical theoretical framework that can best explain the problems and limitations of global capitalism that not only make possible but also viable, necessary, and urgent this eventual, ultimate process of transformation. At the same time, I support an independent, non-sectarian version of Marxism that rejects both ultra-leftism and right-opportunism.

I am a member of the Socialist Party U.S.A., an independent socialist party welcoming of involvement of Marxist and non-Marxist socialists, and famously associated with two of my childhood heroes, Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas. I am a Democratic Socialist, rejecting authoritarian, statist, Stalinist and Maoist variants which I believe have falsely claimed to be "socialist" and "communist," and which in actual practice were neither genuinely "socialist" nor "communist." I am a strong opponent of fascism and totalitarianism, in all forms and guises, including fascist and totalitarian currents at work in everyday life of contemporary capitalist societies and cultures.

In addition, I am and have long been (for well over twenty years now) openly gay. As I see it, our sexualities are complex modes of being and relating in society, and they effect the ways in which we engage in all other forms of social relations, exercising a significant impact on our outlook on life and our everyday engagement in the world. I believe we all are in varying, shifting degrees both gay and straight. I am proud to associate my own understanding of gayness with a radical theorization and practice of gayness conceived and promoted by revolutionary gay liberation in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am a staunch opponent of any and all forms of discrimination, harassment, prejudice, and abuse directed against glbt people, and against homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism even more broadly conceived. I take a very positive, affirmative stance versus the beauty, value, and necessity of a substantially liberated human sexuality in general; I sharply oppose sex-negative positions, whether religious-based or otherwise. And I also continue to work on scholarly projects in this area--from work on my PhD dissertation onward a central scholarly focus for me.

I maintain passionate interests in film and in music. While an undergraduate, I was assistant station manager, music director, and program coordinator for my college radio station, WESU-FM, and I was also a punk/hardcore, post-punk/new wave, and experimental new music disc-jockey. I continue to enjoy all these kinds of music, plus many more varieties as well. I currently am especially compelled by a great deal of recent and contemporary "alt pop" and "indie rock," including fusions of blues, folk, jazz, and country with rock "roots" sources. Of late I have been particularly strongly interested in contemporary Scottish and Northern English indie rock, indie pop, indie folk, indie folk rock, and indie folktronica. And I like a considerable range of "avant-queer" and "post-rock" music too. In addition, I am, further, seriously interested in progressive forms of (especially "conscious") hip-hop (including queer hip-hop or "homo hop") and folk, as well as diverse world musics, in particular those directly conceived as deliberate contributions to progressive social change. I enjoy as well a considerable range of techno and electronica, from trance to trip-hop to leftfield and beyond. I also enjoy Irish and Scottish "traditional" music, including in contemporary innovative forms, involving multiple fusions and hybrids. And, over the course of many years now, I have frequently gone clubbing, dancing at many gay and mixed gay-straight clubs, in many cities in the US and beyond. My all-time favorite rock band is Joy Division.

Moving to teach courses in music as cultural studies starting in the spring of 2008 with "Critical Studies in Contemporary Popular Music Cultures" and then continuing in the fall of 2008 with "Music, Protest, and Resistance" and on into the fall of 2009 once again with 'Critical Studies in Contemporary Popular Music Cultures' I find challenging yet exciting. And the same is certainly true of the class I will teach in the fall of 2011 as a senior seminar: "Ian Curtis and Joy Division in (Historical and Cultural) Context." Because, all in all, teaching is and long has been where I invest the greatest energy, effort, care, and concern of all the academic, intellectual, and professional work that I do--and, yes, this has been the case ever since I first started teaching at the university level in the spring of 1985. Most of all, what I love best about my job, by far, is working with students as a teacher.

I am currently highly active with Eau Claire's progressive, community radio station, WHYS-LP (96.3FM). I dj a weekly music show on this station, Insurgence, focusing on progressive music of protest, struggle, resistance, rebellion, revolt, and transformation (as well as classic post-punk and new wave as well as contemporary indie rock, pop, folk, folk rock, and folktronica). I love it; it is the most fun I have had on a consistent basis since I’ve came to Eau Claire in late June of 1997. At WHYS I also served for over three years on the station's Board of Directors as Coordinator/Facilitator, playing a pivotal role in creating an initial managerial structure for our station. I dabble in my limited free time at playing some with two keyboards, a synthesizer/vocoder, a sampler/sequencer, a ukelele, two drum machines, a dual-CD player and mixer, and with digital electronic music composition programming; some day I really would like to get serious about making my own music.

In the area of film, I am especially fond of film noir and other forms of crime film. But I also maintain deep interests as well in gay and queer film, in contemporary British and Irish film, and in politically committed and engaged documentary, non-fiction, experimental, and avant-garde film. I like films that have a strong, intelligent sense of story, and of character; I like films that deal with serious ideas in complex and sensitive ways; and I like films that are both innovative in technique and economical in expression. At UWEC I served for many years as chair of the International Film Committee plus I founded The Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival in 2005 and have served as Executive Director ever since.

I also love reading diverse mystery and detective fiction, especially "hardboiled" or "noir" fiction (and in particular gay/queer, from Scotland, Northern England, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland).

For many years in college and beyond I concentrated in Irish Studies. I have traveled in Ireland seven times as part of extended visits; I am, moreover, of 100% Irish descent. All of my ancestors came over in the aftermath of the Great Irish Famine (or "Black 47"). I am proud of my Irish heritage and have been involved in a whole host of Irish related interests and activities for most of my life.

In recent years, I have become fascinated in branching out, beyond this Irish focus, to explore emerging wide-ranging interests in Scottish history, culture, politics, film, literature, and music as well. Scotland and Scottish Studies have become principal passions of mine. I taught two courses in "Scottish Studies" in the 2011-2012 academic year: Scottish Cinema, in the fall of 2010, and Scottish Crime Fiction, in the spring of 2011. I have been fortunate to visit Scotland on 14 different occasions since 2003 and travel widely across the country. I love spending time in and learning about Scotland, past and especially present. Edinburgh is my favorite city in the world but I am also extremely fond of Glasgow as well. I am, in addition, looking forward to doing sustained scholarly work in Scottish Cultural Studies. I am currently working on co-editing a book which will provide a comprehensive introduction to and overview of Scottish Cinema, and this is certainly a most exciting as well as humbling prospect.

I have traveled many times and quite extensively across Britain beyond Scotland as well (England, Wales, and the Isle of Man). I am especially fond of London, Brighton, and Manchester among English cities. I tend to greatly enjoy traveling about, and spending time in, cities--and in this area of the world I particularly like Minneapolis and Milwaukee (I may well retire to live in one or the other of these two cities). I've also traveled in, visited, and toured about Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, and Stuttgart. And I've been fortunate enough to visit Hawaii on six separate trips as well.

I am ethnically Roman Catholic, although I left off active involvement in the Church ironically enough shortly after the time in which I was officially confirmed as a “soldier for Christ” (over thirty-five years ago). Right now, my own religious position might best be described as agnostic and post-theistic. At the same time, spiritually, I also am interested in aspects of neo-paganism, especially Celtic-affiliated, and Bhuddism, especially queer-oriented.

When I was younger, I used to run regularly, including in road races. I don’t run regularly any more, although I still strive to keep in good physical shape. I am a fan of many spectator sports, including football, basketball, and baseball--as well as soccer (in particular, European or "Association" football). I also am interested in hurling, Gaelic football, and Australian rules football. And I am a long-time, passionate Green Bay Packers fan.

I live in Eau Claire and I have a Siamese cat, Brendan, born in August of 2003. My partner, Andy Swanson, also works at UWEC, as a lecturer in Mathematics. Andy and I have been together since October 31, 1998, and we were married in June of 2000 at the Unitarian Universalist church in Eau Claire. He is the love of my life--a fantastic person, with whom I am truly very fortunate to be together. In December of 2010 our dog, Bogart, a Chinese pug, died at the age of 14 years and 3 and 1/2 months; he was a great dog, a beloved friend, and we will always remember him with great fondness. We adopted a black Chinese pug puppy, Casey, on May 22, 2011; Casey was born March 23, 2011--he is a wonderful new addition to our family, full of energy and enthusiasm, smart and active--a beautiful dog.

*****

Some additional points of interest about me:

I began working at UWEC as a tenure-track assistant professor with the start of the fall 1997 semester. I was granted tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor by the Wisconsin Board of Regents, officially beginning on August 25, 2003, in response to successive positive recommendations from the UWEC English Department Personnel Committee, UWEC English Department Chair Marty Wood, UWEC College of Arts and Sciences Dean Ted Wendt, UWEC Provost Ronald Satz, and UWEC Chancellor Donald Mash. I was also deeply honored to be awarded the 2003 UWEC Excellence in Service Award at the opening meeting of the 2003-2004 academic year for all university faculty and staff (on August 26, 2003); this award recognizes activities outside of the classroom that promote excellence in education and enhance the university's public image. This followed me winning the Michael Lynch Award from the Gay and Lesbian Caucus of the Modern Language of Association of America in December of 2002 in commemoration for my academic activist work on behalf of glbt freedom, justice, and equality. I have long been a pioneer in boldly teaching and working on behalf of multiple glbt issues and causes (but I never deliberately aimed to be so, as I just did what I found right and necessary, and then, time after time, subsequently found out that I had been pioneering when I hadn't realized I was).

I was born in Belvidere, Illinois on May 6, 1961 (and, interestingly enough, given my present location, conceived in Madison, Wisconsin-the previous summer). I lived the first year of my life in Marengo, Illinois before moving to South Bend, Indiana where I lived for the next seven years. I then moved to Wallingford, Connecticut where I lived until I went off to college, and where I lived for short periods on other occasions since. Besides living in Illinois, Indiana, Connecticut, and Wisconsin, I have lived in New York for nine years and in Arizona for two years.

    My parents, Marilyn Lyons Nowlan and Robert Anthony Nowlan Jr., have been divorced since I was a child (my father remarried [to Gwendolyn, or 'Wendy," Wright Nowlan]; my mother did not).   I have always been considerably closer to my mother; my father and I have long maintained a more distant and at times difficult relationship. I have two brothers, Philip Lyons Nowlan and Edward Sean Nowlan, and a sister, Jennifer Louise Nowlan, all younger than me, and two nephews and two nieces (Alexandra, Thomas, John, and Catherine--all children of my brother Ed and his ex-wife Amy), the latter of whom range from fourteen to twenty-two years old. All of these latter members of my immediate biological family currently live either in Connecticut or Massachusetts. Other members of my immediate family include Crystal Nowlan, my brother Phil's wife; and Peter Golanski, my sister Jennifer's husband.

    I taught at the college and university level for twelve years before coming to UWEC--at Southern Connecticut State University, Syracuse University, State University of New York at Cortland, Onondaga Community College, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Arizona State University, and the New School University.   I also organized and taught numerous free university courses to the general public while living in Syracuse, New York, and in Tempe, Arizona (I more recently continued this kind of educational outreach through projects such as the Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival).   (I've spent the vast bulk of my time and energy the past 26 years of my life devoted to teaching--and I've thereby taught over 10,000 different students in my classes to date.)   I have received numerous commendations and citations for my achievements in teaching; among the latest is "Certificate of Recognition" for "making a significant difference in students' lives," and especially those who are first-generation or low-income college students, from the UWEC Student Support Services Programs in both May of 2007 and May of 2008.

    I received my BA in 1983 from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, as well as my MA in 1985 and my PhD in 1993 from Syracuse University, in Syracuse, New York.   I graduated in 1979 from Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford, Connecticut.

I welcome getting to know and working closely with my students, outside as well as inside of class. I aimed to be a teacher ever since I was in middle school (enjoying the rare opportunity to serve as teacher of my Advanced Placement English class for almost half of my senior year in high school), and working directly with students is the ultimately most satisfying work I do. I am ready, eager, and willing to do all I can to help my students learn if they are able and willing to work with me as mutually respectful and conscientiously dedicated co-partners in this process.

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Professor Bob Nowlan

Last Updated: August 21, 2011