Poulami Roychowdhury
Biographic Data
| ID | 265159 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Poulami Roychowdhury |
| GIVEN NAMES | Poulami |
| FAMILY NAME | Roychowdhury |
| SIGNATURE | ROYCHOWDHURY P |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 38 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Perils and Promises of Unequal Democracy: Insights from the Sociology of India
Why has India, the world's largest liberal democracy, joined the global turn toward authoritarianism? Drawing on the sociological literature on Indian politics, we argue that India's authoritarian turn emerges from the difficulty of sustaining democracy within an unequal society. The Indian state historically managed this difficulty by balancing the interests of opposed social groups: responding favorably to underprivileged groups' demands for we…
Methodological Impasses: Facing Interrogation and Silence While Gathering Data on Sexual Violence in India
Feminist standpoint theorists highlight how relations of power and inequality impact our knowledge of the social world (Smith 1974). The hierarchical positioning of different social groups creates a world in which the experiences and perspectives of certain people are acknowledged while others are silenced (Hartsock 1998; Hekman 1997). Moreover, a researcher’s personal background—her race, gender, class, and sexuality, among other factors—conditi…
Incorporation: Governing Gendered Violence in a State of Disempowerment
Gender and legal scholars argue that law enforcement personnel govern gendered violence by selectively protecting “good victims” and imposing social control. This article shows why these theories are not universally applicable. Using 26 months of participant observation and interview data with law enforcement personnel in the state of West Bengal, India, this article identifies an alternate set of governmental practices termed incorporation. Law …
Illicit Justice: Aspirational-Strategic Subjects and the Political Economy of Domestic Violence Law in India
Criminal cases against domestic violence in India frequently result in unlawful “compromises” where litigants breach legal procedure and negotiate out-of-court settlements. Using ethnographic and interview data, this Article analyzes how legal cases become extralegal settlements. I argue that India’s legal environment engenders an “aspirational-strategic” legal consciousness among survivors, who simultaneously believe they deserve what the law pr…
Over the Law: Rape and the Seduction of Popular Politics
Desire, Rights, Entitlements: Organizational Strategies in the War on Violence
Gender scholars and legal theorists have long worried that feminist interventions against violence tend to govern the very women they aim to emancipate, encouraging certain ways of being, desiring subjects, and affective commitments. If anything, these tendencies are supposedly exaggerated in postcolonial contexts, where feminist commitments to liberal rights butt heads with alternative social and cultural arrangements. Using data collected from …
Victims to Saviors: Governmentality and the Regendering of Citizenship in India
Gender scholars have argued that legal reforms against violence position women as victims in need of state help. Using data collected from 22 months of participant observation with survivors of domestic violence in India, I urge academics to re-theorize the relationship between legal reforms and women's citizenship during an era of neoliberal governance. Burdened with administrative tasks, Indian law enforcement personnel manage new rights claims…
Brothers and Others: Organizing Masculinity, Disorganizing Workers
Sociologists have long argued that hegemonic masculinity serves as an organizing tool, uniting men around a collective identity by excluding women and subordinate men. This article reformulates existing theories by analyzing organizing drives among an occupationally segregated, ethnically diverse group of men. Ten months of participant observation and 30 in-depth interviews with street vendors in New York City revealed how the exclusionary proces…
The Delhi Gang Rape: The Making of International Causes
The Delhi Gang Rape: The Making of International Causes
Victims to Saviors: Governmentality and the Regendering of Citizenship in India
Gender scholars have argued that legal reforms against violence position women as victims in need of state help. Using data collected from 22 months of participant observation with survivors of domestic violence in India, I urge academics to re-theorize the relationship between legal reforms and women's citizenship during an era of neoliberal governance. Burdened with administrative tasks, Indian law enforcement personnel manage new rights claims…
Incorporation: Governing Gendered Violence in a State of Disempowerment
Gender and legal scholars argue that law enforcement personnel govern gendered violence by selectively protecting “good victims” and imposing social control. This article shows why these theories are not universally applicable. Using 26 months of participant observation and interview data with law enforcement personnel in the state of West Bengal, India, this article identifies an alternate set of governmental practices termed incorporation. Law …
Desire, Rights, Entitlements: Organizational Strategies in the War on Violence
Gender scholars and legal theorists have long worried that feminist interventions against violence tend to govern the very women they aim to emancipate, encouraging certain ways of being, desiring subjects, and affective commitments. If anything, these tendencies are supposedly exaggerated in postcolonial contexts, where feminist commitments to liberal rights butt heads with alternative social and cultural arrangements. Using data collected from …
Brothers and Others: Organizing Masculinity, Disorganizing Workers
Sociologists have long argued that hegemonic masculinity serves as an organizing tool, uniting men around a collective identity by excluding women and subordinate men. This article reformulates existing theories by analyzing organizing drives among an occupationally segregated, ethnically diverse group of men. Ten months of participant observation and 30 in-depth interviews with street vendors in New York City revealed how the exclusionary proces…
Illicit Justice: Aspirational-Strategic Subjects and the Political Economy of Domestic Violence Law in India
Criminal cases against domestic violence in India frequently result in unlawful “compromises” where litigants breach legal procedure and negotiate out-of-court settlements. Using ethnographic and interview data, this Article analyzes how legal cases become extralegal settlements. I argue that India’s legal environment engenders an “aspirational-strategic” legal consciousness among survivors, who simultaneously believe they deserve what the law pr…
Over the Law: Rape and the Seduction of Popular Politics
The Delhi Gang Rape: The Making of International Causes
Brothers and Others: Organizing Masculinity, Disorganizing Workers
Sociologists have long argued that hegemonic masculinity serves as an organizing tool, uniting men around a collective identity by excluding women and subordinate men. This article reformulates existing theories by analyzing organizing drives among an occupationally segregated, ethnically diverse group of men. Ten months of participant observation and 30 in-depth interviews with street vendors in New York City revealed how the exclusionary proces…
Victims to Saviors: Governmentality and the Regendering of Citizenship in India
Gender scholars have argued that legal reforms against violence position women as victims in need of state help. Using data collected from 22 months of participant observation with survivors of domestic violence in India, I urge academics to re-theorize the relationship between legal reforms and women's citizenship during an era of neoliberal governance. Burdened with administrative tasks, Indian law enforcement personnel manage new rights claims…
Over the Law: Rape and the Seduction of Popular Politics
Desire, Rights, Entitlements: Organizational Strategies in the War on Violence
Gender scholars and legal theorists have long worried that feminist interventions against violence tend to govern the very women they aim to emancipate, encouraging certain ways of being, desiring subjects, and affective commitments. If anything, these tendencies are supposedly exaggerated in postcolonial contexts, where feminist commitments to liberal rights butt heads with alternative social and cultural arrangements. Using data collected from …
Illicit Justice: Aspirational-Strategic Subjects and the Political Economy of Domestic Violence Law in India
Criminal cases against domestic violence in India frequently result in unlawful “compromises” where litigants breach legal procedure and negotiate out-of-court settlements. Using ethnographic and interview data, this Article analyzes how legal cases become extralegal settlements. I argue that India’s legal environment engenders an “aspirational-strategic” legal consciousness among survivors, who simultaneously believe they deserve what the law pr…
Incorporation: Governing Gendered Violence in a State of Disempowerment
Gender and legal scholars argue that law enforcement personnel govern gendered violence by selectively protecting “good victims” and imposing social control. This article shows why these theories are not universally applicable. Using 26 months of participant observation and interview data with law enforcement personnel in the state of West Bengal, India, this article identifies an alternate set of governmental practices termed incorporation. Law …
Methodological Impasses: Facing Interrogation and Silence While Gathering Data on Sexual Violence in India
Feminist standpoint theorists highlight how relations of power and inequality impact our knowledge of the social world (Smith 1974). The hierarchical positioning of different social groups creates a world in which the experiences and perspectives of certain people are acknowledged while others are silenced (Hartsock 1998; Hekman 1997). Moreover, a researcher’s personal background—her race, gender, class, and sexuality, among other factors—conditi…
The Perils and Promises of Unequal Democracy: Insights from the Sociology of India
Why has India, the world's largest liberal democracy, joined the global turn toward authoritarianism? Drawing on the sociological literature on Indian politics, we argue that India's authoritarian turn emerges from the difficulty of sustaining democracy within an unequal society. The Indian state historically managed this difficulty by balancing the interests of opposed social groups: responding favorably to underprivileged groups' demands for we…
Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (5 works) · Criminology (4 works) · Gender, Security, and Conflict (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Law (3 works)