Nowakowska grew up in the
Polish diaspora community which formed in
London after the
Second World War. She read History at
Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculating in 1995. After graduating she briefly worked in
social policy research before returning to Lincoln College to work on her doctorate on the life and career of Cardinal
Fryderyk Jagiellon, which she completed in 2003. Her doctoral supervisor was Nicholas Davidson. Nowakowska then took up a one-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at
King's College London before joining
University College, Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow in October 2005. In October 2019 Nowakowska was awarded the
Title of Distinction of Professor of European History by the University of Oxford. She has previously served on the governing board of the university's
Faculty of History.
Research Nowakowska's first monograph, based on her doctoral research, was published by
Ashgate in 2007. For the book Nowakowska was named co-winner of the
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies' Kulczycki Book Prize in Polish Studies alongside
Geneviève Zubrzycki. A Polish translation of the book was published in 2011. In 2012 Nowakowska was awarded a €1.4 million
European Research Council Starting Grant to undertake an international project entitled "The Jagiellonians: Dynasty, Identity and Memory in Central Europe". She and her team of five postdoctoral researchers analysed the cultural memory of the Jagiellonian dynasty, producing a 2018 public exhibition at the
Bodleian Library and a series of essays and monographs from this research. In February 2022, Nowakowska gave the
Ilchester Lecture at Oxford's
Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages on the topic 'From Tribe to Dynasty? Globalizing the Jagiellonians of Central Europe (1377–1596)'. Nowakowska is currently working on a new global history of the Jagiellonian dynasty. In 2024 she was interviewed for another Radio 4 serial,
The Reinvention of Poland, hosted by
Anne McElvoy. She has also appeared as a guest in podcasts by the
Historical Association and
BBC History exploring the history of late medieval and early modern Poland and Lithuania and the role of the Jagiellonians in shaping central Europe during these periods. In 2026 she recorded a travel guide to
Kraków for
History Extra's ''History's Greatest Cities'' podcast. ==Personal life==