Kishalay Bhattacharjee is a Professor and Dean at the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication and Director of New Imaginations. A seasoned journalist, he has over two decades of experience reporting from India’s conflict zones. Bhattacharjee is also an award-winning author, with notable works including “Che in Paona Bazaar: Tales of Exile and Belonging from India’s Northeast” (2013), “Blood on My Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters” (2015), “An Unfinished Revolution: A Hostage Crisis, Adivasi Resistance and the Naxal Movement” (2017), and “Where the Madness Lies: Citizen Accounts of Identity and Nationalism” (2023).
He has received several accolades for his work, including the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award (2006-07) and was nominated for the best current affairs programme by the Association of International Broadcasting (AIB) Awards in 2013. His documentary “Santi, Lucy and Thoibi,” which focuses on HIV and Hepatitis C co-infection, was selected for international festivals in Goa and Barcelona.
Bhattacharjee was the first recipient of the Penguin Random House Writers Residency Award (2016) and served as Chair and Senior Fellow at India’s premier think tank, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in 2011. He has also been a Panos Fellow for HIV/AIDS (2007) and an Edward Murrow Fellow in Journalism (2006).