John Bowen

Ph.D. University of Kentucky

Interests and expertise: economic geography, transportation, Asia.

John Bowen joined CWU in 2008 after ten years teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. A native of New England, John graduated with a BA from Dartmouth College in 1988 and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1993. Apart from his work in academia, John also has real-world business experience; he was a cargo marketing Singapore Airlines’ headquarters in Singapore for three years in the 1990s.

As an economic geographer and a transportation geographer, John’s particular areas of expertise include the airline industry, the aircraft industry, and Southeast Asia. He has published several books and many refereed journal articles and book chapters. His books include: The Economic Geography of Air Transportation: Space, Time & the Freedom of the Skies (2010); World Regional Geography: Places, Peoples, and Cultures (2019, co-authored with Kazimierz Zaniewski and Heike Alberts), and Low-Cost Carriers in Emerging Countries (2019). In 2019-20, while on sabbatical from CWU, John was a Fulbright US Scholar in Myanmar and taught geography courses at Yadanabon University in Mandalay. 

At CWU, John teaches a variety of courses including AST 102 Introduction to Asian Studies, GEOG 101 World Regional Geography, GEOG 208 Our Human World, GEOG 301 Introduction to GIS & Maps, GEOG 304 Introduction to Economic Geography, GEOG 306 Transportation Geography & Planning, GEOG 375 Geography of Asia, and GEOG 409 Quantitative Methods. 

Recent publications:

Bowen, J. 2025. FedEx. In Air transportation industry: History and developments, eds. Edward Majewski, Konrad Strasiczak, Sonia Huderek-Glapska, Lukasz Olipra, and Wojciech Augustyniak, Chapter 9.1. ISBN: 978-1-032-56903-1.

Bowen, J. 2024. US 101: From El Camino Real to the Twilight of Empire. In Geography of time, place, movement and networks, Volume 2, ed. Stanley Brunn, Chapter 1. ISBN: 3031580281.

Burns, P. and J.T. Bowen (2024). Global network structure and emissions implications of long-thin airline routes. Journal of Air Transport Management 115. 102554. 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2024.102554.

Bowen, J. and P. Burns. 2023. "We make people fly": Low-cost carriers, economic development, and sustainability in Asia. In Airlines and developing countries, ed. K. Button, Chapter 7. ISBN: 9781804558614.

Bowen, J.T. 2022. An analysis of Amazon Air's network in the United States. Transportation Journal 61, (1): 103-17.

Bowen, J.T. and H.A. Alberts. 2021. Pagodas and PowerPoint: Teaching geography in Mandalay, Myanmar. Focus on Geography, September 6. http://www.focusongeography.org/publications/photoessays/pagodas_ppt/index.html

Bowen, J. 2019. Low-cost carriers (LCCs) in emerging markets: The ascent of budget airlines in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. New York: Elsevier.

Zaniewski, K., H. Alberts, and J. Bowen. 2019. World regional geography. San Diego: Cognella Academic Publishing.

Bowen, J. T. 2018. Diaspora, the Overseas Chinese, and China’s re-emergence in contemporary mainland Southeast Asia. East-West Connections Journal, 12(1), 11-28.

Bowen, J. 2017. Airports. In International encyclopedia of geography, ed. D. Richardson, N. Castree, M.F. Goodchild, A. Kobayashi, W. Liu, and R.A. Marston, DOI: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0061.

Bowen, J. 2017. Air transport. In International encyclopedia of geography, ed. D. Richardson, N. Castree, M.F. Goodchild, A. Kobayashi, W. Liu, and R.A. Marston, DOI: .1002/9781118786352.wbieg0596.

Bowen, J. 2016. “Now everyone can fly”? Scheduled airline services to secondary cities in Southeast Asia. Journal of Air Transport Management 53 (1): 94-104.