Ken Dowden (born 1950) is Professor of Classics and Head of School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham, having succeeded Andrew Barker in 2012.
Dowden is from Newcastle-on-Tyne and studied at Worcester College, Oxford University. He came to Birmingham in 1988, acting as Head of the School of Humanities from 2000 to 2003, and as Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity from 2005 to 2012.