After studying at Duke University, Sciences Po Paris and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Jay Rowell defended his political science thesis at EHESS in 2001 on housing policies in the GDR. Recruited by the CNRS, Jay Rowell began his career at the Georg Simmel Center at EHESS before joining the European Political Sociology Group at the University of Strasbourg in 2004, where he taught on the European Union, the sociology of the state, social science methods and the social state. Director of this laboratory between 2007 and 2012, Deputy Director of CIERA between 2006 and 2016, he became CNRS Research Director in 2013. He has been Vice President Delegate for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Strasbourg and a member of the CNRS National Committee.

His work on the GDR lies at the crossroads of social history, urban sociology and the sociology of the state. He also worked on historical comparisons, civil society and social protection, before embarking on a series of research projects on the sociology of European players, the analysis of relations with Europe and social policies. He has worked on higher education policies and is currently developing a project on the use of "soft skills" in recruitment practices. This project aims to question the logics of social reproduction in an era of meritocracy and school democratization.