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Core Faculty

Mr. Sayantan Datta

Assistant Professor

Sayantan Datta is a writing pedagogue, and an award-winning science journalist and children’s book writer. Prior to joining Alliance University, Sayantan was Assistant Professor of Practice at the Centre for Writing & Pedagogy, Krea University, where he taught for six years, developing and deploying several flagship academic reading and writing courses for undergraduate and doctoral students across multiple disciplines. Sayantan also coordinated Krea’s pioneering Conversation Partner Programme,  a peer support programme designed to help students practice their English speaking, reading, and listening skills. Originally trained as a neuroscientist, Sayantan’s research and writing now look at writing pedagogy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; science, technology, and society studies; science education; science journalism and communication practice in contemporary India; and gender and sexuality studies. Sayantan’s research and reporting, published in several international and national peer-reviewed journals and media platforms, has been funded by the UK Research Initiative; the National Association for Science Writers, USA; the ReFrame Institute for Arts and Expression; and the Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology, India. His work has been recognised by the 2023 Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity and the inaugural Sage-Ashoka Prize for Critical Writing Pedagogies. Sayantan’s journalistic work is also on the 2026 shortlist of the One World Media Awards (UK), and his children’s books have been twice listed in Tata Trusts’ Parag Honour List (2023 and 2024). Sayantan collaborates extensively with academics and journalists, and contributes routinely to public scholarship. He is a life member of the Indian Sociological Society and the Forum for Medical Ethics Society, and a working editor with the peer-reviewed Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. Sayantan is also a member of the multimedia science collective Labhopping Science Media Forum, the Indian Science Journalists’ Collective, and a contributing writer with queerbeat, an independent media platform producing deeply reported stories on the lives of queer and transgender individuals in India.
Publications

Journal Publications

  • Kumar, P., and Datta, S. “’We Will Keep Clapping till the End’: Hijra Narratives on Their Taali”. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, October 2025, URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09715215251351409.
  • Datta, S. “Recording Sex and Gender Data in Clinical Settings”. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, July 2025, URL: https://ijme.in/articles/recording-sex-and-gender-data-in-clinical-settings/.
  • Datta, S. “Beyond Anxiety: Autonomy and Harm Reduction Approaches to DIY Hormone Replacement Therapy”. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, October 2024, URL: https://ijme.in/articles/beyond-anxiety-autonomy-and-harm-reduction-approaches-to-diy-hormone-replacement-therapy/.
  • Kumar, P., and Datta, S. “Caste Concerns in Transgender Communities in India: Contesting Cohesiveness, Broadening Horizon(s)”. Social Change, May 2024, URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00490857241248989.
  • Kumar, P., Datta, S., and Mishra, N. “Queer and Trans Community Building in Post-NALSA and Post-377 India: A Critical Reflection”. Community Development Journal, April 2024, URL: https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article-abstract/59/2/209/7639851
  • Datta, S. “’It’s Nice That We Can Do That Too’: Investigating Trans People’s Negotiations with Identity and Community Questions in Indian Science Institutions”. Community Development Journal, April 2024, URL: https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article-abstract/59/2/274/7638190.
  • Datta, S. “Epistemological Deviant, Epistemic Abjection & Lost Opportunities: A Case Study of a Muslim Trans Intersex Student’s Othering and Dehumanisation in an Indian Science Classroom”. Contemporary Education Dialogue, January 2024, URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09731849231206226.
  • Wang, P., Sarkar, S.,…Datta, S….Jaiswal, M. “DYRK1A Interacts With Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and Promotes mTORC1 Activity”. eLife, 12 July 2023, URL: https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/88318.
  • Datta, S. “On Authorship in Science: Power, Misconduct, Responsibility and Accountability”. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 2022, VII, pp. 184-188, URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35695868/.
  • Datta, S., Jaiswal, M. “Mitochondrial Calcium at the Synapse”. Mitochondrion, 01 July 2021, 59, pp. 135-153, URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1567724921000520.
  • Datta, S. “Do Women and Men Have ‘Sexed’ Brains?” Economic and Political Weekly, 22 January 2019, 54 (3), URL: https://www.epw.in/engage/article/do-women-and-men-have-sexed-brains.
  • Datta, S. “Transfeminist Mobilisations Need to be Both Transformative and Transgressive”. Economic and Political Weekly, 28 July 2018, 53 (30), URL: https://www.epw.in/engage/article/transfeminist-mobilisations-need-to-be-both-transformative-and-transgressive.
  • Datta, S. “(Re)imagining Feminist Solidarities in Academic Spaces”. Economic and Political Weekly, 10 January 2018, 53 (1), URL: https://www.epw.in/engage/article/reimagining-feminist-solidarities-academic-spaces.
  • Datta, S. “We Refuse to be Subjects of Experiment for Those Who Do Not Understand Us: Transgender Persons Bill”. Economic and Political Weekly, 08 December 2017, 52 (49), URL: https://www.epw.in/engage/article/transgender-persons-bill-we-refuse-be-subjects-experiment-those-who-do-not-understand.

Book Chapters

  • Datta, S. “Queering Infrastructures: Queer Necropolitics to Emancipatory Politics of Living in Higher Education in India”. Sociology of Gender in India: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives, ed. Pushpesh Kumar, Rituparna Patgiri and Deepali Aparajita Dungdung, Cambridge University Press, 2026. Forthcoming.
  • Mishra, N., and Datta, S. “Paam Padati”. Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes, ed. Renny Thomas and Sasanka Perera, Tulika Books and Columbia University Press, 2025.
  • Warrier, U., Priya, G., and Datta, S. “Trials and Tribulations of LGBTQ+ People at Work as Barriers to their Job Satisfaction: A Minority Stress Theory Perspective”. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, ed. Sunitha Singh Sengupta, P. Jyothi, Suresh Kalagnanam, and B. Charumathi, Taylor & Francis, 2024.
  • Datta, S. “Finding (Homo)sexuality in the Genome: A Critique of Genetic Investigations on Sexuality”. Sexuality, Abjection and Queer Existence in Contemporary India, ed. Pushpesh Kumar, Routledge India, 29 July 2021, pp. 178-190.
Conference

10th National Bioethics Conference

Forum for Medical Ethics Society

Indian Journal of Medical Ethics

Health, Ethics, and Law Institute for Training, Research, and Advocacy

&

Christian Medical College Vellore

2025

 

Reflections on the Teaching of Reading and Writing in STEMM

Centre for Writing & Pedagogy, Krea University

Mathematics Discipline, Krea University

2025

 

Building Inclusive Institutions: Negotiating Living Arrangements & Related Policies for Queer, Transgender and Intersex Persons in Higher Education Institutions in India

CEPT University

Centre for Writing & Pedagogy, Krea University

Office of Inclusive Learning Support, Krea University

2024

 

Education in India: Violent Desires, Exclusionary Tendencies and Transformative Potentials

Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad

Centre for Writing and Pedagogy, Krea University

2023

 

Queer and Trans Community-Building in Post-377 and Post-NALSA India

Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad

Centre for Writing and Pedagogy, Krea University

2022

Other Achievements

Awards Won

  • One World Media Awards (Print), Shortlist, 2026
  • Binod Kanoria Children’s Books Award, Longlist, 2024
  • Parag Honour List, 2024
  • SAGE-Ashoka Prize for Critical Writing Pedagogies, 2024
  • 13th Laadli Media & Advertising Award, 2023
  • Green Literature Festival Honour List, Shortlist, 2023
  • Parag Honour List, 2023
  • Olympus Image of the Year Award, 2020
  • Cover Story of the Year, The Telegraph in Schools (TTIS), 2014

Public Scholarship

  • Datta, S. “Who is the Vyomanaut? Understanding India’s Human Face in the New Space Race”. India and the Second Space Age, ed. Suresh Nambath and Vasudevan Mukunth, 2026, pp. 63-74.
  • Datta, S. “Transgender Subjects, State-Society Nexus and the Policyscape of Higher Education in India”. TransForming Rights: How the Law Shapes Lives, Identity and Community in India, ed. Jayna Kothari, Westland Books, 2026, pp. 199-224.
  • Datta, S. “Who Gets to Profit from DNA Data?”. The Genetic Frontier: How Gene Editing and Synthetic Biology are Redefining What it Means to be Human, ed. Suresh Nambath and Vasudevan Mukunth, 2025, pp. 94-110.
  • Sundaresan, S., Datta, S., Paul, D., Borah, S., Rathore, A., & Thapliyal, U. “Breaking Barriers: Connecting Science, Media and the Public”. SciComm ThinkLabs: Exploring Pathways to Connect Science and Society, Foundation for Advancement of Science and Technology India, 2024.
  • Datta, S. “Marriage Equality in India: Queer Intimacies, Heteropatriarchal Institutions, & the Language of Rights”. Sangamithra: An Ode to the Past, a Nod to the Future, Good as You Bangalore, 2024.
  • Datta, S. “Indian Science Institutes’ Curious Penchant for Gendered Hostels”. Bold Bylines: Voices of Change in Indian Media, ed. A. L. Sharada, Population First & United Nations Population Fund, 2023, pp. 127-138.
  • Datta, S. “Inclusive Science Outreach, What Does it Mean, and Why do we Need it?”. Dhvani: A
  • Compilation of Resources for Science Outreach in India, ed. Manjula Harikrishnan, Karishma S. Kaushik and Ankita Rathore, IndiaBioScience.org, 2023, pp. 16-20.
  • Datta, S., and Kumar Dey, B. “Bohot Kuch Hota Hai: Towards a Reparative Reading of Pathaan”. Doing Sociology, 30 July 2023.
  • Datta, S., & Kumar, P. “Science, State and Procreative Conundrums: A Transgender Perspective”. Law School Policy Review, 2023.
  • Datta, S. “The Politics of Erotic Empowerment: Repulsion and Irrationality”. Qurbatein: A Gender and Sexuality Biannual, Ashoka University, 2, 2023.

Other Achievements

  • Cover Photograph, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 2025
  • Jury Member, Rainbow Awards for Literature and Journalism, 2024
  • Recipient, Attendance Fellowship, Science Journalists’ Forum, 2023, 2022, 2021
  • Summer Research Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, 2016
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