Abantee Dutta
Bio
Abantee Dutta’s primary training has been in Political Science and Law. After having litigated as a constitutional and criminal lawyer across different jurisdictions and places in India for 6 years, she consciously moved into the area of applied law in 2010 and, since then, has been working at the intersections of law and arts, culture, heritage and, recently, sports. Abantee holds a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her engagement with culture, specifically in dance and heritage conservation, spans from writing to designing policy interventions and pedagogic research. She has co-authored a publication of the Magic Lantern Foundation, New Delhi on Copyright, Culture and Creativity. She has also been studying Bharatnatyam and Sattriya, both classical disciplines in India. Through her work at the Gati Dance Forum, a support network for dancers in New Delhi, Abantee has co-led initiatives to advocate and harness support for the emerging dance fraternity in India and engage with stakeholders such as the Government, institutions, and artists to consolidate the needs of the dance sector and build policies reflecting such needs. She was part of the core team to draft the Punjab Cultural Heritage Policy supported and led by the Department of Culture, Government of Punjab, India and UNESCO, India. Abantee has recently started an organisation called Nilima’s Workshop: Studios for Legal Research, Policy and Capacity Building, which seeks to develop and support research and build capacity for students in Assam.