Julia Kowalski

Julia Kowalski is an Assistant Professor of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, affiliated with the Keough School of Global Affairs, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and concurrently with the Gender Studies Program and Department of Anthropology. Her research focuses on gender, kinship, and expertise in South Asia, particularly North India. She examines how interactive practices like counseling and training shape social transformation, with a focus on gendered violence and policy implementation. Her award-winning book, *Counseling Women: Kinship Against Violence in India* (2022), explores how women’s rights projects reshape family dynamics and agency in Rajasthan. Her research has been funded by Fulbright-Hays, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the American Institute for Indian Studies. Kowalski’s current projects include studying the history of interactive practices in Indian development and global efforts to measure care work. She holds a PhD in comparative human development from the University of Chicago.

Research Interests: Gender, kinship, women’s rights, personhood, gendered violence, everyday institutional practices, North India.

Recent Work: Explores tensions in development policy between democratic governance and technocratic expertise, and the challenges of metricizing ‘care’ in global policy frameworks. Her articles analyze antiviolence interventions, NGO-state dynamics, and care labor’s role in social reproduction.

Awards: 2023 Michelle Z. Rosaldo Prize from the Association of Feminist Anthropology for *Counseling Women*.

Teaching & Advising: Focuses on integrating critical-interpretive approaches with positivist research methods in global policy contexts. Advises students on gender studies, development, and anthropological theory.

Grants & Affiliations: Faculty fellow at the Keough School’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Klau Institute for Civil & Human Rights, and Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.