(PhD, University of California, Irvine, 2002) Cichowski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science with a joint appointment in the Law, Societies and Justice program at the University of Washington. She is a member of the European Studies Faculty in the Jackson School of International Studies and adjunct Faculty in the Women's Studies Department at UW. Her visiting research positions include Visiting Research Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy (1998-99) and Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute, Bonn, Germany (2000).

Her primary research interests include comparative law and politics, international law and organization, and transnational mobilization with an emphasis on the role of courts and social activists in the processes of constitutionalization, democratization and globalization around the world. She is author of a book entitled The European Court and Civil Society (2007, Cambridge University Press, WINNER of the American Political Science Association's 2008 Best Book Award, European Politics & Society Section) that focuses on the interactions between the European Court of Justice, transnational activists and the expansion of EU governance in the areas of women's rights and environmental protection. Cichowski co-edited the book State of the European Union: Law, Politics and Society (Oxford University Press, 2003).  She also edited and contributed to a Special Issue of the journal Comparative Political Studies, entitled Courts, Democracy and Governance (February 2006).  Her research is published in edited volumes and in various journals, including Law & Society Review, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, and Women & Politics.

Cichowski teaches classes in comparative and international law and courts, international organization, sex discrimination law in the European Union and women's rights as human rights in international perspective.