Poulami Roychowdhury is Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Brown University. She joined Watson in the fall of 2023 and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Sociology. Previously, Roychowdhury was an Assistant Professor at McGill University. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology at New York University and B.A. in political science and economics from Swarthmore College.
Roychowdhury's books include the award winning "Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India" (Oxford University Press 2021) and "Unequal Contagion: Citizenship, Democracy, and the Politics of COVID-19 in India" (Oxford University Press 2026). Roychowdhury's writing can be found in a range of journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Feminist Studies, Gender & Society, Law & Social Inquiry, Signs, and Social Problems.
Roychowdhury’s research has won awards from the American Sociological Association, the Eastern Sociological Society, the Law and Society Association and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She has served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Sociology, Gender & Society, Law & Social Inquiry, and Sociological Theory.
Roychowdhury's research focuses on two key questions. How do social movements influence the evolution, implementation, and enforcement of human rights, specifically women’s rights? Second, what kinds of social, political, and economic conditions undermine democracy, and in turn what ensures democratic resilience?
Roychowdhury is currently working on three projects: understanding the effects of government-led women’s empowerment initiatives in India; a Seed Grant funded survey of women’s support for right-wing populist political parties; and an inquiry into fetal personhood activism in the United States.
BOOKS
2026. Unequal Contagion: Citizens, States, and Covid 19 in India, with Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner (UVA, Politics). New York: Oxford University Press.
2021. Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India. New York: Oxford University Press.
ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS
2025. “The Perils and Promises of Unequal Democracy: Insights from the Sociology of India,” with Rina Agarwala (Johns Hopkins). Annual Review of Sociology, 51: 4.1-4.21.
2023. “Methodological Impasses: Facing Interrogation and Silence While Gathering Data on Sexual Violence in India,” with Aditi Malik (Holy Cross). Political Science & Politics, 57(2).
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.
2021. “Incorporation: Governing Gendered Violence in a State of Disempowerment.” American Journal of Sociology, 124(4): 852-888. 2019. “Illicit Justice: Aspirational-Strategic Subjects and the Political Economy of Domestic Violence.” Law & Social Inquiry, 44(1): 1-24.
SOCI 2330 States, Power, Politics (graduate)
IAPA 1800 Politics of Reproductive Justice (undergraduate)
SOCI 1480 What's Wrong with Empowerment? (undergraduate)