Prof. Dr. Harshana Rambukwella
Harshana Rambukwella is Director, Postgraduate Institute of English, Open University of Sri Lanka. He received his PhD from the University of Hong Kong, where he is Honorary Assistant Professor at the School of English. He is the author of the Politics and Poetics of Authenticity: A Cultural Genealogy of Sinhala Nationalism (2018) published by University College London Press (UCL Press) and is a trustee of the Gratiaen Trust which awards the Gratiaen Prize for Sri Lankan writing in English and has been a member of the State Literary Sub-committee. His work has also appeared in a number of journals such as the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, boundary 2, and Journal of Asian Studies. He has been a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Social Studies and Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh.
Harshana’s research interests are in postcolonial literatures, literary history and nationalism.
Short CV
Education
Ph.D. University of Hong Kong, December 2008
Disssertation topic: The Search for Nation: Exploring Sinhala nationalism and its others in Sri Lankan anglophone and Sinhala-language writing.
Suppervised by Assoc. Professor Elaine Yee-Lin Ho.
Nominated by the Faculty of Arts the 2007/2008 Li Ka Shing Prize for best hummanities dissertation.
BA, English Literature (2 nd Upper Hons.) The University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, March 1997 - March 2001
Dissertation topic: Jean Arasanayagam’s Anxious Identities: Imagined Histories and Constructed Roots.
Academic Experience
Senior Researcher (part-time contract), ICES (International Centre for Ethnic Studies), Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 2012 to date
Senior Lecturer, Post Graduate Institute of English (PGIE), Open University of SriLanka, November 2011 to date
Currently designing an MA in the teaching of literature in a second language context - the first of its kind in the country.
Honorary Assistant Professor, School of English, The University of Hong Kong, September 2009 to date
Main responsibilities include course and teaching material design, teaching and evaluation.
Research Assistant, School of English, The University of Hong Kong, September 2008 to date
Guest Lecturer, Department of English, The Hong Kong Institute of Education(HKIEd), appointed from February 2009 to May 2009
Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Hong Kong, September 2004 - August 2008
Selected Publications
Articles in Internationally Referred Journals
- 2006 (With E Y L Ho). “A question of belonging: Reading Jean Arasanayagam through nationalist discourse.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 40(2): 61-81
- 2007. “In search of the nation: When Memory Dies and the [im]possibility of a national imaginary in postcolonial Sri Lanka.” The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities XXXIII (1 &2): 57-70
- 2013(forthcoming). “Postcolonial nativism? Exploring post-secularism and its implications for history in Sri Lanka” boundary 2: an international journal literature and culture. Duke University Press.
Book Chapters
- 2010. “Sri Lankan English” The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, edited by Andy Kirkpatrick. London: Routledge (Co-authored with Dushyanthi Mendis)
Research Papers
- “Reconciling What? History, realism and the problem of an inclusive Sri Lankan identity”. ICES Research Paper No 3, August 2012
Reviews
- Island Paradise: The Myth by Melanie Murray. Postcolonial Text 5(3) 2009
- Chinaman: The legend of Pradeep Matthew by Shehan Karunathilaka. Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities XXXVI (1 & 2) 2010
- “Review of Shirani Rajapakse’s Breaking News.” Cha: an Asian literary journal. March 2012, Issue 16
- “Cast as mother: A review of a work in progress”. Groundviews citizen’s journalism website 27 May 2012.
Encyclopaedia Entries
- 2005. “Jean Arasanayagam.” The Literary Encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company.
- “Jean Arasanayagam.” The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction. (2010)
- “Yasmine Gooneratne.” The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction.(2010)
Other Publications
- 2005. “In search of theory.” Article published in The School of Criticism and Theory newsletter InTheory.
- 2001. Co-edited with Matthew Rotando. Slippage: A collection of original Sri Lankan writing in English. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Auspicious Feet.
- “Seeing Trincomalee for the First Time.” Travel article in Travelsrilanka magazine, Jun 2003