Rowan was brought up in Brighton where she attended a local comprehensive school, and then went on to read English and French at New College, Oxford. After a year working in London, including a stint at The Literary Review, she returned to Oxford to pursue a Masters and a Doctorate, specialising in sixteenth-century history and culture. She held fellowships at St John’s College and New College, before being appointed to a permanent lectureship at the University of Bristol, where she is now Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Studies.