I am a medievalist, specializing in the literature and culture of German-speaking world. I studied in Cambridge, Freiburg in Breisgau and Cologne, then joined King's in 2012 after a research fellowship at the University of Oxford; I became Professor of German and Medieval Studies in 2025. I was Head of the Department of German from 2019 to 2022 and am currently Head of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. I am the author of two monographs, Bridal-Quest Epics in Medieval Germany: A Revisionary Approach (London 2012), and Writing Sin in the German Lands, 1050–1215: Confession, Penance and Textuality (Oxford 2025). From 2023-25 I am Co-I on the AHRC-funded project 'Liturgical and Literary Landscapes: the cult of St Oswald of Northumbria in the German-speaking world', as well as co-Principal Investigator on the project 'Sacred Secular', funded by the Thyssen Foundation. I am the representative for Germanic and Low Countries Studies on the University Council for Languages and Honorary Treasurer of the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Medieval German literature and manuscript culture, especially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
• Literature and theology
• European cult of St Oswald
• Ecomaterialism and the posthuman

My research centres on the literary culture of the German lands in the Middle Ages. My first monograph, Bridal-Quest Epics (2012), offers a major reappraisal of one of the canonical, yet problematic, genres of medieval German literature, and is connected to my wider, ongoing interest in the history of scholarship on medieval literature as well as the ways and means in which we categorize and label texts. My current work centres broadly around the relationship between literature and theology, particularly in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. I'm particularly interested in the development of German as a literary language and the emergence of a discourse of vernacular religious poetry. My recent monograph, Writing Sin (2025) explores these areas through the lens of attitudes towards (and writing about) sin, confession and penance. I'm currently working predominantly on the veneration of Oswald of Northumbria in the German-speaking world, as well as the way in which sanctity is shaped by (and shapes) landscape; I'm also interested in temporality, creation and medieval approaches to posthuman thought.

I welcome applications for PhD topics related to any of my interests.

For more details, please see my full research profile.

Teaching

I teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules on medieval literature and culture and also contribute to various core modules in German. I enjoy collaborative and transperiod teaching wherever possible.

Expertise and Public Engagement

I'm increasingly exercised by the relevance – both political and creative – of medieval thought and culture in the contemporary world. As part of the AHRC project 'Liturgical and Literary Landscapes' I'm involved in a range of public engagement activities, collaborating with creative practitioners. I have appeared on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, discussing the medieval German epic 'The Nibelungenlied', and have organised and been involved with a wide range of outreach activities for language learners.

Selected publications 

• Bowden, S. Writing Sin in the German Lands, 1050–1215: Confession, Penance and Textuality (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2025)
• Bowden, S. 'The Raven and his Master: Animals and Animality in the Munich Oswald', in Liturgy, Literature and History: Oswald of Northumbria and the Cult of Saints in the High Middle Ages, ed. Johanna Dale, Proceedings of the British Academy (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2025)
• Bowden, S. and S. A. Friede, 'Zum Problem der ‚Heilsgeschichte‘: Raumzeitliche Situierungen der Alexanderfigur in deutschen und französischen Texten des 12. Jahrhunderts'. Poetica 55 (2024): 29–64
• Bowden, S., L. Braun and G. Younge, eds, 'Time in the Twelfth Century'. Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures 10 (2023)
• Bowden, S. Bridal-Quest Epics in Medieval Germany: A Revisionary Approach (London: MHRA, 2012)