Dr Richard Bowyer (he/him)

Richard is the Acting Head of the Law School.

His teaching expertise is in land law, constitutional & administrative law, housing policy, and theoretical dimensions of law. Richard's teaching excellence has been recognised in the 2017 Student Guild/FXU Teaching Awards (Best Undergraduate Supervisor). He holds a Senior Fellowship of the HEA.

Richard joined the Law School at Exeter in August 2012, having held previous positions at Queen Mary and Birkbeck. In his doctoral thesis, Richard looked at how law can be created in an act of artifice, examining the role of mythology and music in the maintenance of sovereign power. His research has taken him to the writings of James Joyce, to early twentieth century Irish political history, and to the psychological writings of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

Richard has held the following administrative/leadership roles:

Currently:

Acting Head of the Law School (June 2025 - February 2026)

co-Director of Education and Student Experience (since 2024)

Programme Director, BA in Legal Studies (since 2022)

Previously:

Director of Workload and Community (member of the Law Executive Team, 2020 - 2022)

Elected member of University Senate (2016 - 2020)

College Director of Taught Programmes (2018 - 2020)

Director of Education (2017 - 2018)

Deputy Director of Education (2016 - 2017)

Senior Personal Tutor (2014 - 2017)

Director of Admissions (2013 - 2015)

Year 2 Coordinator (2013 - 2014)