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Research Staff
Muragala | Centre for Progressive Politics & Policy is a research collective which aims to generate ideas, enrich the discourse, and mobilise social action to create more equal and equitable societies in Sri Lanka and the region.
Mr Harindra B. Dassanayake is a senior researcher, policy analyst and visiting lecturer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Formerly he was employed as Director (2015-2019, Research, Presidential Secretariat/Member – Gramashakthi National Advisory Council), Director (2012-2015, Department of Official Languages), and Head of Translations and Publications, & Research Coordinator (2008-2011, Colombo Institute for Advanced Study of Society and Culture). He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kelaniya, University of Colombo, and University of Peradeniya. He received a B.A. General Degree with Second Class Honours (Upper Division) at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka; an MA in Development Studies and Public Policy at the Open University of Sri Lanka; and an MSSC in Philosophy at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Email: h.dassanayake@muragala.lk l Twitter: @HarindraBD
Ms Nuwani N. Rathugama’s research interests lie in human rights, transitional justice and international humanitarian law. She was a research assistant at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, UK, researching on good practices of gender equality across the UK universities to suggest recommendations for Queen’s School of Law (December 2022- June 2023). She was attached to the United Nations as a Project Support Associate, based at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka from 2019-2022. Nuwani has an LLM in International Human Rights Law from Queen’s University Belfast, UK, MA in Human Rights and Democratisation from the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and an LLB (Hons) from the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is also an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
Ms Manuja Wijesuriya is a final-year Geography student at the University of Peradeniya, with a particular interest in human geography and social sciences. Her primary focus is on Cyberspace and Social Movements, serving as the core of her final year dissertation. She is eager to explore the dynamics of current social issues, especially in South Asian countries, and seek practical solutions through empirical research.
Twitter: @ManujaWije49124
Ms Carmen Weerasinghe is a Colombo-based project officer, policy practitioner, and development professional with over a decade of experience in civil society strengthening, peacebuilding, and inclusive governance. She worked as a Project Officer at PACT International on the Sri Lanka Bolstering Civil Society (BCS) initiative. Previously, she was Project Leader at One Text Initiative (2023) and Programme Officer at The Asia Foundation (2018–2021). Carmen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from the Open University of Sri Lanka.
Email: carmen.weerasinghe@muragala.lk
Mr. Sajeewa Wijeweera is a multimedia journalist, photographer, and media trainer with over two decades of experience. He is currently the Chief Editor and Publisher of Rata.lk, a news and current affairs website. He previously served as Director of Media at the Ministry of Home Affairs (2017–2019) and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (2016–2017), and as Editor of the Lankadeepa Online edition (2007–2016). He was Head of the Election Monitoring Programme – Social Media (UNDP and Factum, 2024) and Media Coordinator for the Provincial Journalists Training Programme (2023/24). He holds diplomas in Mass Communication, Archaeological Heritage, and Photography, and is reading for a Master’s in Media Research at the University of Colombo. He has won national and international awards for journalism and environmental reporting, and has co-authored, authored, and translated several publications.
Ms Sandunlekha Ekanayake is currently a lecturer of English and Business Communication at the Faculty of Business, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Her curiosity about space/place runs deep and was manifested through her bachelor’s dissertation titled, “An Orientalist ‘Sense of (Other) Places’: Hollywood and Its Representation of India as a Place of Spiritual Transformation and Difference.” Having graduated with a double Bachelor’s in English and International Business, she makes her work sit at an intersection of a multitude of disciplines.
Ms. Sahanya Wickramasinghe is a third-year undergraduate at the University of Peradeniya, majoring in Geographic Information Science. Alongside her main field of study, she has a strong interest in analysing spatial patterns across diverse subjects and in psychology and counselling.
Ms. Prasalya Sivabalan is a third-year Bachelor of Business (Hons) student in International Economics and Finance at the Royal Institute of Colombo. She is passionate about Economics and keenly interested in global economic trends and practical solutions.
Board of Directors
Professor Prabha Manuratne is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Kelaniya, where she has taught since 2016 and served as Head of the Department from 2019 to 2022. She holds a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo, NY, with a dissertation on violence and resistance in world literature and cinema. Her research explores representations of violence, war pornography, democracy, and postcolonial art. Prof. Manuratne earned her M.A. and a Certificate in Women’s Studies from Kansas State University, where she was honored with the Earle R. Davis Memorial Scholarship. She has received the Isabel S. Marcus International Research Fellowship and has published work on education reforms and neoliberal identities.
Mr Harindra B. Dassanayake is a senior researcher, policy analyst and visiting lecturer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Formerly he was employed as Director (2015-2019, Research, Presidential Secretariat/Member – Gramashakthi National Advisory Council), Director (2012-2015, Department of Official Languages), and Head of Translations and Publications, & Research Coordinator (2008-2011, Colombo Institute for Advanced Study of Society and Culture). He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kelaniya, University of Colombo, and University of Peradeniya. He received a B.A. General Degree with Second Class Honours (Upper Division) at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka; an MA in Development Studies and Public Policy at the Open University of Sri Lanka; and an MSSC in Philosophy at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Mr Sunil Jayasekara is a veteran journalist and media rights activist with over 26 years of experience in Sri Lanka’s media industry. He has held key editorial roles, including Editor of Silumina and Deputy Editor of Irudina, and served as Press Director to the President (2015–2019). A strong advocate for media freedom, he has been the Convener of the Free Media Movement and a Director of the Sri Lanka Press Institute. He has also co-convened the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence. He has contributed to policy discussions through publications and represented Sri Lanka in international media programmes.
Our Advisers
Dr Nimendra Mawalagedara holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from Georgia State University, and a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in History from Southern Arkansas University. Her doctoral dissertation challenged dominant Eurocentric paradigms in political science by examining state formation theory and nationalism in precolonial contexts. Her broader research interests include political attitudes, party systems, and political platforms. She has experience designing surveys and analysing survey data to study political attitudes and behavior. Her work often integrates both quantitative and qualitative methods. She has also worked in both Democratic and Republican political campaigns and has participated in election observation efforts and ballot initiatives in the United States. Dr Mawalagedara has taught courses in both American and International Politics at Georgia State University in the United States and is currently a Visiting Lecturer in Sri Lanka, where she teaches courses in International Relations and U.S. politics.
Dr Shreya Singh is an academic researcher and consultant with research expertise in visual politics, nuclear weapons, and national identity, grounded in the politics of India. Her PhD is titled, ‘Visualising India’s Nuclear Tests: How Images Shape National Identity’. It examines how influential domestic media sources represented India’s nuclear tests and what consequences follow from these representations. She was conferred her PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Roland Bleiker, Professor Ian Hall and A/Professor Marianne Hanson. Dr Singh was a consultant for a project by Lex International, a Swiss research organization, on the visual narratives of the nuclear weapons’ threat in the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022. She is a research team member of ‘Abolitionist Approaches to Critical Geographical Research’, a multi-country research grant awarded by the Institute of Human Geography. Her work looks at the Anti-CAA protests that erupted all through India in 2019-2020, with a focus on gender and the visual politics of space. She is currently working as an advocacy and learning resources officer for a medical device company in Brisbane, Australia.