Jan Sowa (born 1976) is a materialist dialectical social theorist and researcher. He studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland and University Paris VIII in Saint-Denis, France. He holds a PhD in sociology and a habilitation in cultural studies. He is recognized primarily for his work on modernity and modernization in (semi)peripheral zones of the capitalist world-system.

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His research and teaching assignments took him to several academic and non-academic institutions in Poland and abroad including University of São Paulo, Akademie der Künste der Welt in Cologne and Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Between 2016 and 2019 he was a member of the Committee on Cultural Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has also been active outside of the academic field in media and art, recently working as the Curator of Discursive Programs and Research of Biennale Warszawa (2018-2019).

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Jan Sowa edited and authored several books and published numerous articles in Poland and abroad (in France, United States, Mexico, Czech Republic, Canada and others). A collection of essays A Joy Forever: Political Economy of Social Creativity, that he co-edited, including articles by Luc Boltanski, Massimiliano Tomba, Isabelle Graw and Gigi Roggero appeared with MayFly Books (London) in 2015. He recently edited a volume of interviews with activists and scholars dealing with self-organization and self-rule (Solidarity 2.0 or Democracy as a Form of Life, 2019).

Jan Sowa is currently employed as Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.