Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia

Poulami Roychowdhury is Associate Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs at the Watson Institute. Her research focuses on the relationship between gender inequality, politics, law, and criminal justice.

Roychowdhury is the author of the award winning book Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India (Oxford 2021). Her writing can be found in a range of journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, Feminist Studies, Gender & Society, Signs, and Social Problems. 

She is currently working on two separate projects in India. The first looks at the politics of sexual harassment, tracing the evolution of new policing practices around street harassment. The second is an interdisciplinary, collaborative initiative on the implications of India’s Covid-19 pandemic on political, social, and economic inequality.