Historiography

ZOOM SEMINARS ON “NEW RESEARCH IN SRI LANKAN HISTORY”

Amarakeethi, Liyanage (University of Peradeniya) 

Humanizing Nationalism? Reflections on ‘Buddhist Humanism’ in the Sinhala novels of Jayasena Jayakodi and Arrawala Nandimithra

Discussants: Charles Hallisey (Harvard University) and Padma Dorje Maitland (California Polytechnic State University)

18 March 2022

Anderson, Clare (Harvard University)

Learning the Tropics: The Rise of Agricultural Education in Ceylon and the British Empire.

Discussants: Tamara Fernando (Stonybrook University) and Sumit Guha (University of Texas at Austin)

6 October 2023

Balmforth, Mark (University of Toronto)

Tobacco Rāṇi: commodity, caste, and slavery in British colonial Jaffna

Abstract 

Discussants: Paul Halliday (University of Virginia) and Indrani Chatterjee (University of Texas at Austin)

5 March 2021

Blum, Binyamin (University of California, Hastings College of the Law)

Herbert Dowbiggin and the New Vision of Colonial Policing

Abstract

Discussants: Nira Wickramasinghe (Leiden University) and John Rogers (AISLS)

12 March 2021

Bulten, Luc (Radboud University)

Contested categories? Dutch and Lankan tenurial, fiscal, and social concepts in the eighteenth-century colonial registers and their workings
Abstract

Discussants: Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri (University of Colombo) and Sumit Guha (University of Texas at Austin)
26 February 2021

“COLONIALISM INSIDE OUT” PROJECT

de Leede, Bente (Leiden University)

Life After Death: dying, mourning and inheriting in Dutch Sri Lanka
Extended Abstract
Discussants: Charles Hallisey (Harvard University) and Danna Agmon (Virginia Tech)
19 February 2021

“COLONIALISM INSIDE OUT” PROJECT

Esler, Dominic (LUMS, Pakistan)

Notes sur Mantotte: Caste and Catholics at a Time of Schism

Discussants: Deborah Winslow (School for Advanced Research) and Chandra Mallampalli (Boston College)

1 April 2025

Fernando, Tamara (Institute for Historical Research, London)

Historicizing Marine Science in Ceylon, 1850-1925

Abstract

Discussants: R.L. Stirrat (University of Sussex) and Debjani Bhattacharyya (Drexel University)
1 October 2021

Field, Garrett (Ohio University)

Entangled in Turmoil and Envisioning the Future: Hussein Salahuddeen’s Dhivehi Writings from Ceylon in 1902 and 1933

Discussants: John Rogers (AISLS) and Nile Green (UCLA)

3 November 2023

Guneratne, Arjun (Macalester College)

The origins of ornithology as a science in nineteenth century Sri Lanka

Abstract

Discussants: Sujit Sivasundaram (University of Cambridge) and Nancy Jacobs (Brown University)

5 November 2021

Halliday, Paul (University of Virginia)

The Jaffna Circuit, 1812

Discussants: Kalyani Ramnath (Harvard University) and Bhavani Raman (University of Toronto)

1 April 2022

Haniffa, Farzana (University of Colombo)

The Moors Islamic Cultural Home and the Modern Muslim Ummah: Negotiating Identity, Politics, and Community in 1940s Sri Lanka

Discussants: Jonathan Spencer (University of Edinburgh) and Chitralekha Zutshi (College of William & Mary)

27 October 2023

Hyser, Raymond (University of Texas at Austin)

Cultivating Perceptions: Tropicality and Environmental Knowledge in Ceylon’s Coffee Culture

Discussants: Cherry Briggs (SOAS, London) and Stuart McCook (University of Guelph)

13 October 2023

Laffan, Michael (Princeton University)

Seven Pashas for Ceylon, or Exile and the Limits of Muslim Community

Abstract

Discussants: John Rogers (AISLS) and Eric Taglicozzo (Cornell University)

24 September 2021

Lehrer, Tyler (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

The Siamese Prince and the Portuguese Priest: Monks, Kings, and Dutch East India Company Schemes in Eighteenth Century Kandy and Ayutthaya

Discussants: Zoltán Biedermann (UCL) and Tilman Frasch (Manchester Metropolitan University)

4 November 2022

Leoshko, Janice (University of Texas at Austin)

The Significant Place of Geology for Ananda Coomaraswamy

Abstract

Discussants: Jonathan Spencer (University of Edinburgh) and Romita Ray (Syracuse University)
15 October 2021

Lyna, Dries (Radboud University)

Justice consumed: Dutch civil courts in 18th-century Sri Lanka

AbstractDiscussants: John Rogers (AISLS) and Aparna Balachandran (University of Delhi)
12 February 2021

“COLONIALISM INSIDE OUT” PROJECT

Marcelline, Sanayi (University of Colombo)

Salt and Convicts: Bonded Labour in Early 19th Century Sri Lanka

Discussants: John Rogers (AISLS) and Aparna Balachandran (University of Delhi)

4 March 2022 

McKinley, Alexander (Lake Forest College)

Healing Buddhist Knowledge from Palm Leaves to Print: Exorcising Yakṣas from Sinhala Literary Reproduction

Discussants: Sandagomi Coperahewa (University of Colombo) and Sujit Sivasundaram (University of Cambridge)

11 March 2022 

Peterson, Tom (SOAS, London)

Song Collecting in Nineteenth-century Ceylon: The Hugh Nevill Collection and its Resonance in Modern Sri Lanka

Discussants: Charles Hallisey (Harvard University) and Radha Kapuria (Durham University)

25 March 2025

Philip, Deborah (CUNY Graduate School)

Voicing the Nation: The Politics of Voice and Un/Belonging in Song of Ceylon (1934)

Discussants: Harshana Rambukwella (Open University of Sri Lanka) and David Campion (Lewis & Clark)

25 March 2022

Schonthal, Benjamin (University of Otago)

The Monk’s Three Bodies: (De)constructing Buddhist Law in Colonial Ceylon/Sri Lanka

Discussants: Paul Halliday (University of Virginia) and Alicia Turner (York University).

10 November 2023

Schrikker, Alicia (Leiden University)

Cashing on conflict: Dutch colonialism and social control in eighteenth century Jaffna

Discussants: Mark Balmforth (University of Toronto) and Danna Agmon (Virginia Tech)

29 October 2021

Shirley, Bruno (University of Heidelberg)

Reconstructing Buddhist Kingship in Poḷonnaruva, c. 1070-1215.

Discussants: John Rogers (AISLS) and Cynthia Talbot (University of Texas at Austin)

18 March 2025

Siddiqi, Samee (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Parallel Lives or Interconnected Histories: Anagarika Dharmapala and Muhammad Barkatullah’s ‘world religioning’ in Japan, 1884-1914
Discussants: Ramla Wahab-Salman (AILS Colombo) and Neilesh Bose (University of Victoria)

18 November 2022

Sivasundaram, Sujit (University of Cambridge)

Muslim Colombo: Preliminary Thoughts

Discussants: Farzana Haniffa (University of Colombo) and Laurence Gautier (Centre de Sciences Humaines, Delhi)

11 November 2022

Thomas-McGill, Kristen (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Triangulating Hector Macdonald in Ceylon: Early 20th-Century Scandal and Reputation on a “Spicy Little Isle Where Ladies were Few”

Discussants: John Rogers (AISLS) and Rachel Hope Cleves (University of Victoria)

28 October 2022

Thoradeniya, Darshi (University of Colombo)

Birth Control and Reproductive Rights in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Discussants: Nira Wickramasinghe (Leiden University) and Douglas E. Haynes (Dartmouth College)

8 October 2021

van Schooten, Pouwel (Leiden University)

Pluralities of emancipation or Manumission in 18th-century Galle, Sri Lanka

Discussants: Luc Bulten (Radboud) and Aparna Balachandran (Delhi)

8 April 2025

Wettimuny, Shamara (Oxford University)

“The Jews of Ceylon”: Antisemitism, Prejudice and the Moors of Sri Lanka

Discussants: Michael Laffan (Princeton University) and Neilesh Bose (University of Victoria)

25 February 2022 

Witharana, Dileepa (Open University of Sri Lanka)

Some Missing Pages from History: D.J. Wimalasurendra and Developmental Nationalism of Ceylon

Brief SynopsisDiscussants: Harshana Rambukwella (Open University of Sri Lanka) and Douglas E. Haynes (Dartmouth College)

5 February 2021