Sayan Bhattacharya

Biography

Sayan Bhattacharya currently holds the position of Curator, Education at the prestigious Indian Museum, Kolkata. With a rich academic background, he earned his PhD in Archaeology from the renowned Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute in Pune, India. Prior to his current role, Sayan served as a Programme Assistant at the Centre for Archaeological Studies in Eastern India.

His contributions to archaeological academia are noteworthy, marked by the presentation of research papers at international forums. Notable among them are presentations in Sofia, Bulgaria (2009) on “Cultural Resources and Heritage Means of Indic Studies Interaction between Children and Museum,” in Colombo, Sri Lanka (2010) on “Preliminary Archaeological Investigation at the Site of Kotasur and its Environ, District Birbhum, West Bengal,” and in Colombo again in 2011, addressing “Disaster Risk Mitigation of Cultural Heritage: An Appraisal.” In 2015, he presented on “Early Medieval Archaeology of the Ajoy Damodar Dwarakeshwar Interfluve Area.”

Beyond his academic pursuits, Sayan has demonstrated a commitment to community engagement. He has actively worked with underprivileged children, organizing various programmes aimed at fostering education and cultural awareness. This reflects his dedication to making a positive impact on society and utilising museums as platforms for inclusive learning experiences.

Sayan’s publications include:

Editorial Volume: The undersigned jointly with Prof V.S. Shinde and Dr S. Ganvir edited the volume titled Cultural Heritage of South Asia and Beyond: Recent Perspective Published by Research India Press in Collaboration with Society of South Asian Archaeology, 2020.
(Co-author – Sharmistha Chatterjee), Early Medieval Archaeology of the Ajoy Damodar Dwarakeshwar Interfluve Area, Sanskriti Bichitra, ISBN 978-81-7479-183-2, VOL-1 PP-288-297/2015, Kaveri Publisher, New Delhi, 2016.
Museum Strategy in Towards a Global Network, The British Museum, UK, 2011.
Preliminary Archaeological Investigations of the site Kotasur and its adjoining areas, district Birbhum, West Bengal, with Dr Sharmistha Chatterjee Puratattva, 2011.

At the British Museum
During his time on the International Training Programme in 2009, Sayan was based in the Department of Asia and his partner placement was spent at Birmingham Museums Trust.

In 2009 an element of the programme was a morning of presentations, in which groups of participants presented a 10-minute illustrated talk, prompted by the task to consider a new display of the fellows’ cultures at the British Museum.  Sayan’s exhibition proposal was entitled Hanuman, The Monkey God.

Legacy Projects
In November 2015 Sayan attended the ITP Mumbai Workshop Creating Museums of World Stories. The workshop was held at CSMVS Mumbai, India and was attended by many ITP fellows from different years and countries, UK partners and British Museum colleagues.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 3, Reasons for celebration: 202 years of the Indian Museum