Kaja McGowan’s studies the reciprocal relationships between neighboring countries in South and Southeast Asia. Her research explores the flow of ideas and artifacts along this highway—architecture, bronzes, textiles, ceramics, performance traditions, and visualizations of texts like Panji Malat, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. The reciprocal flow accounts for the shaping of ideas and the development of styles across vast geographical and historical distances.

Geographic Research Area: India and Indonesia

Teaching/Research Interests: Gender studies, colonialism, landscape and the human body, and material culture