Saumya Dey has done a PhD in history at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). His primary research interests are intellectual and cultural history and the politics of colonial India.

He has till date published two monographs and two collections of essays – Becoming Hindus and Muslims: Reading the Cultural Encounter in Bengal. 1342-1905 (Munshiram Manoharlal, 2015), The Seedbed of Pakistan. Cultural Conflicts, Elite Muslim Anxieities, and the Congress (Vitasta, 2023), The Cultural Landscape of Hindutva and other Essays. Historical Legitimacy of an Idea (Shubhi Publications, 2019 [Revised Edition, 2023]), Narrativizing Bahratvarṣa and other Essays (Shubhi Publications, 2021 [Revised Edition, 2022]).