How do states regulate violence and why do state officials use certain strategies over others? When does violence inspire political mobilization? How does mobilization impact gender inequality and people’s abilities to acquire justice? These are some of the questions that motivate Professor Roychowdhury’s academic work.

Currently, Dr. Roychowdhury is working on three separate projects. The first examines the politics of sexual harassment in India, tracing the evolution of new policing practices around street harassment. The second focuses on the transnational politics of reproductive justice, asking how women respond to legal challenges against abortion. The third is an inter-disciplinary, collaborative initiative that traces the inequality of Covid 19 in India.

2020. Internal Social Sciences & Humanities Development Grant, McGill University

2016. Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, Insight Development Grant

2016. Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQSC), Établissement de Nouveaux Professeurs-Chercheurs

2015. Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council Travel Grant, McGill University

2015. Internal Social Sciences & Humanities Development Grant, McGill University

2014. New Faculty Research Start-Up Grant, McGill University

2013. Consortium for Faculty Diversity in Liberal Arts Colleges, Smith College

2011. Georgette Bennett Fellowship, New York University

2010. National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant

2010. Fulbright-Nehru Dissertation Research Fellowship

2009. American Institute for Indian Studies Junior Research Fellowship (declined)

Books

2021. Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Forthcoming 2023. Pandemic Inequality: Citizens, States, and Covid 19 in India, with Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner (UVA). Under contract with Oxford University Press. 

Articles

2021. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Incorporation: Governing Gendered Violence in a State of Disempowerment.” American Journal of Sociology, 12 (4): 852-888.

2019. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Illicit Justice: Aspirational-Strategic Subjects and the Political Economy of Domestic Violence.” Law & Social Inquiry, 44 (1): 1-24.

2016. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Desire, Rights, Entitlements: Organizational Strategies in the War on Violence.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 41 (4): 793-820.

2016. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Over the Law: Rape and the Seduction of Popular Politics.” Gender & Society, 30 (1): 80-94.

2015. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Victims to Saviors: Governmentality and the Regendering of Citizenship in India.” Gender & Society, 29 (6): 792-816.

2015. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Brothers and Others: Organizing Masculinity, Disorganizing Workers.” Social Problems, 61 (1): 22-41.

2013. Poulami Roychowdhury. “The Delhi Gang Rape: The Making of International Causes.” Feminist Studies, 39 (1): 282-292.

Book Chapters and Special Issues

2022. “Between Women and the State: Rights Brokers and Capital Accumulation in West Bengal.” Toward a Sociology of South Asia: Rethinking Politics, Labor, and Culture. Eds. Smitha Radhakrishnan and Gowri Vijayakumar. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Forthcoming 2023. “Researcher Positionality and Experiences of Fieldwork on Gender-Based Violence: Lessons from India,” with Aditi Malik (Holy Cross).  Political Science & Politics, xx(x). 

Other Publications and Media Appearances 

2022. “Why Police Sexual Harassment? Women’s Rights and the Politics of Hindu Nationalism.” India in Transition. Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania. 

2022. “Governing Gendered Violence” [blog post]. Law in Action. American Sociological Association, Sociology of Law Section.  

2021. “Capable Women, Incapable States” [podcast]. New Books Network.  

2021. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Absence in the Time of Covid 19” [blog post]. Ethnographic Marginalia.

2018. Daybreak Montreal. “McGill Profs Back Students Call for External Investigation” [radio broadcast]. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

2016. Poulami Roychowdhury. “A Call to Knowledge: Let’s Gather More Data Before Rushing to Action” [Blog post]. Gender & Society.

2014. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Gender-based Violence: An Index of ‘Tradition’ or Social Change” [Blog post]. Gender & Society.

2013. Poulami Roychowdhury. “Focus on Rape in India Ignores Global Problem.” Salon.com.

Book Awards

• American Sociological Association, Human Rights Section, Gordon Hirabayashi Book Award 2022

• American Sociological Association, Distinguished Book Award, Honorable Mention 2022

• Eastern Sociological Society, Mirra Komarovsky Book Award 2022

• Law and Society Association, Herbert Jacob Book Prize, Honorable Mention 2022

Article Awards

• American Sociological Association, Human Rights Section, Best Article Award 2022

• American Sociological Association, Political Sociology Section, Best Article Award 2022

• American Sociological Association, Sociology of Law Section, Best Article Award 2022

• American Sociological Association, Crime Law and Deviance Section, James F. Short Jr. Distinguished Article Award, Honorable Mention 2022

• American Sociological Association, Development Section, Best Faculty Article Award, Honorable Mention 2022

• Society for the Study of Social Problems, Arlene Kaplan Daniels Paper Award, Honorable Mention 2022