Dr. Poulami Roychowdhury is Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs at the Watson Institute (with joint appointment in Sociology) at Brown University. Her research analyzes how political movements influence the evolution, implementation, and enforcement of human rights, with special attention to rights concerning gender-based violence.
Professor Roychowdhury’s award winning book, Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India, was published with Oxford University Press in 2021. Through ethnographic and interview-based accounts of survivors, civil society groups, and law enforcement personnel, this book develops a theoretical framework for understanding how collective action influences law enforcement decision making and women’s access to justice.
Professor Roychowdhury has published in American Journal of Sociology, Feminist Studies, Gender & Society, Law & Social Inquiry, Signs, and Social Problems. Her writing 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 is an Associate Editor at Social Politics and an editorial board member of Gender & Society, Law & Social Inquiry, and Sociological Theory.
Book
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
Capable Women, Incapable States is available in hardcopy, paperback, and e-book through Oxford University Press.
Gender-based violence is a heavily politicized issue in India with diverse organizations supporting women’s legal claims. Meanwhile, Indian law enforcement personnel are sexist and have limited abilities to enforce the law. In Capable Women, Incapable States I ask how women claim rights within these conditions. How do rights negotiations impact gender inequality and reframe the boundaries of legality and state authority?
This book relies on data gathered through participant observation and in-depth interviews. I find that women do not seek rights by following legal procedure. Instead, they mobilize collective threats and do the work of the state themselves. They behave this way because organized actors train them to do so and because law enforcement personnel respond favorably to organized pressure. Women who are threatening and hustle around, those who complete case processing duties, negotiate extra-legal settlements, and deploy violence move ahead with their claims.
Capable Women, Incapable States asks readers to consider the limits of existing theories of gender and governance, much of which are based on the histories of post-welfare state. In contexts where enforcement capacity is low and organized pressure high, women do not relate to the state as “good victims” in need of protection. Rather, to be able to interact with the state at all, they must act “capable.” The book considers how women’s “capability” holds the promise of empowerment while simultaneously threatening women’s personal security and undermining state sovereignty.
Research
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.
Roychowdhury’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, the American Institute for Indian Studies, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec. Her writing appears in the American Journal of Sociology, Feminist Studies, Gender & Society, Law & Social Inquiry, Signs, and Social Problems.
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.
Publications
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.
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
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.
Fellowships
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)
2009. Pre-doctoral Research Fellowship, New York University
2009. Collaborative Research Grant, New York University
2006. Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship
2005. Henry McCracken Fellowship, New York University
Contact
Poulami Roychowdhury
McGill University, Sociology
Room 717, Leacock Building
855 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, QC, H3A 2T7
poulami.roychowdhury@mcgill.ca