Passionate for ensuring success for all honors students, Dr. J.D. Bowers has over fifteen years of experience in honors education focused on the promotion of inclusion, societal issues, interdisciplinarity, the development of innovative courses, and student scholars and leadership programs.
He has taught honors courses focused on genocide, human rights, Black Studies, and history. His courses on genocide and mass atrocities (focused on the Holocaust, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Rwanda, and the pursuit of post-atrocity justice) also include study abroad programs to sites within those countries as well as to Den Haag, Nederlands, to learn about the ICC and other international tribunals, judicial efforts, and post-atrocity societal reconstruction.
True to the honors-approach that learning can be fascinating and fun, one of his most popular courses has been 'Cue and Soul: Black Food Culture in America, a class focused on the social, cultural, historical, and interdisciplinary dimensions of the food cultures. Here at Rutgers he also teaches several different Byrne Seminar courses to first-year students, including Reading the Times (in which students learn to use the NYTimes as a central text for knowledge and civic engagement) and Modern Genocide: An Overview.
Dean Bowers serves as a Faculty Fellow for the Honors College and lives in 5 Seminary Place alongside many of our students, sponsoring and engaging in College events, activities, and programming, as well as serving as a mentor for those students who value the intersectional dimensions of our living-learning community. He coordinates the Faculty Fellows program within the College (of ten + Fellows) and also runs the Workshop on Genocide & Human Rights for undergraduate students interested in more deeply exploring the field of study through readings, author talks, site visits, cultural events, and more.
He grew up in both New Jersey (Surf City, LBI) and Pennsylvania (Northumberland), and he is an avid sailor, surfer, and water sports enthusiast, loves to backcountry hike and camp, and is an avowed foodie of numerous cuisines and beverages (especially Italian coffee, wine, and Aperol Spritz). And he travels to Cyprus at the end of every October to participate in the olive harvest and oil pressing.
In addition to his role as Dean, Dr. Bowers is a Professor of the Practice in Africana Studies and History, both in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers, as well as a Faculty Associate and member of the Executive Committee at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights within Rutgers Global. He currently has two book manuscripts in progress on the unresolved Cyprus conflict and on the genocide in Bosnia. He has also worked with the International Council for Transitional Justice.
Nationally, he was a founder and the former Executive Director of the Council on Honors Education (CoHE), an organization of over 130 land-grant, public university honors colleges or programs, that has served to set the standard for high-impact, enriched collegiate education and research. He has also been involved in professional educator mentoring and leadership program development, conducts honors program reviews, and lectures widely.
Prior to coming to Rutgers in 2022, his thirty-plus-year academic career has included time at Punahou School (Hawai’i), The Madeira School (Virginia), Northern Illinois University, and the University of Missouri. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in History from Indiana University and a B.A. in Government from The College of William & Mary in Virginia.