BA (Colombo) MA (Colombo) PhD (Wellington)

I am a senior lecturer at the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo.  I currently teach introductory course for International Relations, Geopolitics, South Asia, Advanced Theories of IR and Research Methodology at the undergraduate level and critical theories in International Relations, Gender, Migration and Research Methodology at the postgraduate level in Sinhala and English medium. I use decolonial and feminist teaching techniques at the class room.

Administratively, I am the coordinator of the Postgraduate Diploma in Gender and Women’s Studies and the Certificate Course in International Relations.

As a researcher, I am more drawn to explore dynamics in international migration, challenges of democratic citizenship regime, borders, transnationalism and Sri Lankan diaspora. I am more interested in multidisciplinary research that cross International Relations, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology. Currently I am working on understanding the ways in which Sri Lankan immigrants’ make sense of their home and host country citizenship. I am the author of Immigrants’ Citizenship Perceptions: Sri Lankans in Australia and Aotearo New Zealand published by Peter Lang in 2023 (https://www.peterlang.com/document/1269872)

I can be reached via: pavithraj@inr.cmb.ac.lk / jayawardenapavithra1@gmail.com

Tel. 0094112500433

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Administrative Experience

Director of Undergraduate Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo – 2021-2022

Academic Coordinator, Masters in Gender and Women’s Studies, Faculty of Graduate Studies – 2021-2023

Academic Coordinator, Postgraduate Diploma in Gender and Women’s Studies, Faculty of Graduate Studies – 2021 – todate

Steering Committee Member, Gender Cell, University of Colombo – from 2022

Academic Coordinator, Certificate Course in International Relations, Faculty of Arts – 2023

Vice President, Arts Faculty Teachers’ Association (AFTA) – 2021

Vice President, Arts Faculty Teachers’ Association (AFTA) – 2023/24

Exam Coordinator, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Arts – from 2022

Professional Qualifications

Advanced Qualitative Research and Analysis in Education, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2017

Diploma in Intercultural Leadership, Swedish Institute, Sweden, 2016/2017

Certificate in Teaching in Higher education, Staff and Education Development Association (SEDA), England, 2015

Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education, Staff Development Centre, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2015

Certificate in Teaching International Humanitarian Law, Faculty of Law – University of Colombo and International Committee of the Red Cross, 2014

Executive Certificate in Project Management, Institute of Human Resource Advancement (IHRA), University of Colombo, 2012

Certificate in Human Resource Management, Charted Institute of Personal Management (CIPM), 2011

Certificate in Tamil Language, Institute of Human Resource Advancement (IHRA), University of Colombo, 2010

Diploma in Television Media, Sri Lanka Rupavahini (TV) Corparation, 2008/2009

Awards, Achievements and Academic Engagements

2022-2023: Capstone Award from Indo-Pacific Circle (IPC): Member of a group of five to receive an award of 5000 USD to produce a special issue that is published by Indo-Pacific Circle

2022 July: Funded by the Indo-Pacific Circle (IPC) to attend the 5 day residential workshop in Chennai, India on Indo-Pacific Region. Organised by Council for Strategic and Defence Research, New Delhi and Center for Policy Research.

2022, August: The Third Annual Sri Lankan Summer School in Decolonial Thought – “Decolonising the political” by Goldsmiths College, University of London. Funded by The British Academy.

2021, April – August: The Second Annual Sri Lankan Summer School in Decolonial Thought – “Decolonising the Body” Organised by Goldsmiths College, University of London. Funded by The British Academy.

2018/2019: Grant for PhD research work by Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

2018: Early Career Researchers’ workshop, Auckland, New Zealand. Funded by Jean Monnet Network: Policy, Politics, Culture: EU Migration and Integration

2017: PhD grant by National Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (NCAS), Sri Lanka

2016/2017: Fully funded diploma and the leadership training of Young Connectors of the Future Program by Swedish Institute (Si), Sweden

2013: National delegate at the Commonwealth Youth Conference, Hambanthota, Sri Lanka

2012: Sri Lankan Assistant National Leader at the 24th Ship for World Youth Program by the Government of Japan and the United Nations University.