Swapan Samanta is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges ancient philosophy and contemporary critical theory in examining beauty’s role in human culture. Born in Kolkata and educated across Asia, Europe, and North America, Samanta brings multilingual expertise and cross-cultural perspective to beauty studies.
Samanta’s scholarship appears in leading journals of cultural studies, philosophy, and consumer psychology. Beyond academic work, Samanta maintains active practice in traditional Bengali beauty preparations, studying under hereditary practitioners to preserve endangered knowledge. They regularly conduct workshops on ethical beauty practices and sustainable alternatives to commercial cosmetics.
Samanta currently divides time between research, teaching, and advocacy for beauty industry reform. They serve on advisory boards for ethical beauty initiatives and contribute to policy discussions on cosmetic regulation and traditional knowledge protection.
When not writing or teaching, Samanta can be found in botanical gardens studying traditional beauty plants, in museums examining historical beauty artifacts, or in conversation with elders documenting oral histories of beauty practices. This is their first book-length work, representing fifteen years of research across six continents and hundreds of archives, archaeological sites, and traditional communities.
His book:
From Rasa to Retina