Dr. Dipannita Dutta is a historian specialising in Modern Indian History, with research interests in the social history of science and technology in colonial India. She completed her Ph.D. in History at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, with a thesis titled ‘Sound of Music: History of Sound Recording Industry in Colonial India.’ Her academic interests encompass aural history, sound recording and reproduction technologies, discography, and broadcasting, examined through the lens of their intersections with society, gender, culture and nationalism. She has served as a Guest Faculty member in the Department of General Studies, University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata, and as a Research Assistant on an Indian National Science Academy (INSA)-funded project on the history of science and nationalism.

Dr. Dutta’s research has been widely published, with peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, and book chapters appearing in journals and edited volumes from Orient BlackSwan, Peter Lang, and other leading academic presses. Her forthcoming monograph, Playback: A History of Melody, Matrix and Audio-Media in Colonial India, is to be published by Routledge, India. She is the recipient of the Professor P. S. Gupta Memorial Prize and the J. C. Jha Memorial Prize, awarded by the Indian History Congress for the best paper in the Modern India section. Dr. Dutta is also trained in the Indian classical dance forms of Manipuri and Kathak and has a passion for collecting and curating gramophone records.