WRITER, THINKER AND EDUCATOR.

Sayan Roy (he/They) hails from the Jungle Mahals of West Bengal, a region shaped by its long history of resistance against power structures--from the Chuar Rebellion against British colonialism to the more recent legacies of the Naxalite insurgency. The experience of growing up in such a region where questions of struggle, displacement, and state power were embedded in everyday life shaped their interest in identity politics, mass movements, and the lives that often remain outside dominant narratives. Many of these concerns continue to inform their intellectual work, as their research seeks to examine how questions of exclusion, epistemic violence, and alternative forms of community emerge across literature, culture, and Digital media.

 

He is currently working as a PhD researcher at the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He qualified CUET-PG with AIR 5 in 2022 and UGC-NET with AIR 10 in 2024. After qualifying CUET-PG, he completed my Master’s in the Centre for English studies at JNU with a 7.75 CGPA (out of 9) and received an A+ for their dissertation. Their research interests include Monster studies, Indian Avant-Garde, contemporary continental thought, Popular Culture and Digital Humanities He has worked on projects involving the archiving and translation of 1960s Bengali little magazines, and he is currently researching digital Necromancy and Black Speculative Horror.

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Their scholarly work has appeared or is forthcoming with publishers such as Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Routledge and Springer, alongside presentations at several national and international conferences. Apart from research, he has mentored over 1,000 students for CUET PG and UGC NET preparation. Over the years, he has helped more than 100 students qualify for NET, supported 25+ students in securing admission to leading Indian universities for master’s programmes, and guided several scholars into PhD programmes. Through both teaching and academic writing, he tries to create spaces where literature and cultural studies remain critically rigorous while also accessible and engaging. Through their Open Academia project, they seek to democratise and un-gatekeep knowledge in the humanities by making academic discussions more accessible beyond institutional and class barriers.