PhD
University of Pittsburgh, USA
1990
MA
University of Georgia, USA
1985
BA (Hons)
University of Peradeniya
1981
Attorney-at-Law
Sri Lanka
2005 ( First and Second Year Completed)
University of Pittsburgh, USA
1990
University of Georgia, USA
1985
University of Peradeniya
1981
Sri Lanka
2005 ( First and Second Year Completed)
Director - Centre for the Study of Human Rights, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
2017 - To Present
Professor of English - University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
2014 - To Present
Chief Consultant & Course Designer - CORE VALUES training Programme for second-tier Sri Lankan community activists, USAIDSponsored SPICE initiative
2015 - 2016
Head - Department of English
2014 - 2017
Visiting Professor & Senior Fellow - Humanities Center, University of Pittsburgh, USA
2012 - 2013
Consultant - Strategic Plan 2013 -2015, Transparency Maldives
2012 - 2013
Visiting Professor, - National University of Malaysia, School of Language & Linguistics
2009 - 2010
Head - Office of Civil Affairs, United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), Kathmandu, Nepal
2007 - 2008
Senior Consultant - Vibhasha Translation Project, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lanka (funded by Ford & Asia Foundations)
2001/2003 - 2004/2006
Sri Lanka Country Representative - Oxfam Community Aid Abroad (Australia)
2001 - 2003
Fellow, [Non-Resident Fellowship] - Carnegie Council for Ethics & International Affairs, New York
2000 - 2001
Senior Fellow - Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace, United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC
1999 - 2000
Dean - Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo
1996 - 1999
Head - English Department, University of Colombo
1994 - 1996
Senior Lecturer - Department of English, University of Colombo
1990 - 1994
Secretary - Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA)
2016
President - Peradeniya Arts Faculty Teachers’ Association (PAFTA)
2016
Member - Advisory Committee on the Presidential Initiative to steer Sri Lanka towards a Trilingual Society (to prepare 10-year Master Plan)
2010 - 2011
President - Sri Lanka English Language Teachers’ Association (SLELTA)
2008 - 2010
Member - English Advisory Committee, Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka
2000 – 2001, 2005
Member - Curriculum Development Panel, Advanced Level English, Presidential Task Force on Education
1999
Member - Border Village Citizens Commission, Sri Lanka
1999
Director - Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lanka
1999 - 2003
Member - Advisory Committee, Centre for the Study of Human Rights
1993/96
Member - Standing Committee for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University Grants Commission, Sri Lanka
1996/97
Chair - Committee of Heads, English Language Teaching Units, Sri Lanka
1996
Acting President - Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Language & Literary Studies
1995/96
Editor in Chief - University of Colombo Review
1997 -1999
Editor - Phoenix, Journal of the Sri Lanka Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language
1997/98
Vice President - Federation of University Teachers’ Associations, Sri Lanka
1995/96
Director - Environmental Foundation Limited
1992/95
Committee Member - March for Conservation, Sri Lanka
1994-1997
Team Leader - Local & National Capacities Evaluation, Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC) four country study
2005/6
Team Leader - HURIST Review of UNDP programmes in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Macedonia, Philippines (member)
2004/5
Trainer - Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) to UNDP in Kyrgyzstan, India, Nepal and HURIST Review countries
2003/8
Policy Adviser - Peace & Development, UNDP/Nepal (International Appointment made by BCPR/New York)
2003/4
Member - Raymond Williams’ Keywords revision panel convened at Jesus College, Cambridge University
2007 - to present
Member - Editorial Board, PALA [Anthology of American Literature for Asian Students], chaired by Professor Paul Lauter (Trinity College)
1999 to Present
Fulbright New Century Scholar - 2007/8
Guggenheim Research Grant - “Saturated with Loss: The Bereaved Sexualities of Sri Lanka’s Prolonged War”
2001/2002
Building Communities of Peace: Working Towards the Subaltern Resolution of Sri Lanka’s Civil War - US Institute of Peace
2001/2002
Fellow - Carnegie Council for Ethics & International Affairs
2000/2001
Senior Fellowship - United States Institute of Peace, Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace
1999/2000
NARESA, Sri Lanka (Now National Science Foundation) Sri Lanka, Research Grant RG/98/SS/01 - “Approaches to text and context in English language learning & teaching in Sri Lanka as a means of re-orienting English towards new social goals and realities”
1998 - 2000
Culture Studies Fellowship - University of Pittsburgh, USA
1987/88
America Academy of Poets - Award for Poetry, University of Georgia
1985
Senior Fellowship - United States Institute of Peace, Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace
1999/2000
Parakrama. A, (2011) “Assuring IneQuality of Opportunity and Performance: Inappropriate Northern Norms Mask Southern Inadequacies” Chapter in Eds. Koo Yew Lie, Sarjit Kaur and Morshidi Sirat Quality Assurance and University Rankings in the Asia Pacific: Country and Institutional Contexts, Universiti Sains Malaysia Press.
Parakrama, A. (2001) “Means Without End: Emergency Humanitarian Assistance in Sri Lanka” Chapter in Dying Like Flies: Local Organizations in Humanitarian Emergencies, ed. Ian Smillie, Humanitarianism and War Project, Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, Brown University, Kumarian Press.
Parakrama, A. (2006) TEC Local and National Capacities Evaluation, Regional Report covering Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand, [co-author with Betty Scheper and Smruti Patel]. Includes four separate country studies and detailed claimholder survey reports (involving over 1000 respondents) for Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Fourth International Conference on World Englishes,
[published as monograph in 2002] “Baduth Unge, Naduth Unge: The Tools and Rules are Theirs – Some Thoughts on the Language of Privilege and the Privilege of Language” Focus Paper, Singapore, December 1997.
International Translation Conference
“The Enabling Double Miss: (Mis)Translation as The Norm of Postcolonial (Mis)Communication” Keynote Lecture, Colombo, 2004
SLELTA International Conference
Parakrama, A. “Applied Linguistics: Footnotes on an Impowerished Discourse” Main Plenary Lecture, , Colombo, August 2, 2006
International Translation Conference
Parakrama, A. “Bridging Minding the Gaps: Translation & the Oppression of Pedagogy” Keynote Lecture, Peradeniya, August 13, 2006
“Borrowed Lives Diverge Again: the Personas of Pundit, Guru and Swami in Different Englishes Today” Presentation at Keywords Conference, University of Pittsburgh, Jan 26, 2013 [to be published on Keywords website].
“Repairing a Spider’s Web by Hand: Thirteen Propositions on Subalternity and Language” University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center Colloquium, 2013
“(Mi)Staking Subaltern Everyday Practice in Crisis: Mapping Borderline Mobility, Identity, Agency” Anthropology Colloquium Lecture
University of Pittsburgh,2013
“Post-Identity in Post-Conflict: Post-Its on the Margins of Sri Lanka’s War and Peace”
Humanities Center, University of Pittsburgh, USA 2012
SoLLS International Conference
Plenary Speaker, National University of Malaysia, 2011
Symposium “Speak English Our Way”
keynote speech “Is English still an instrument of linguistic imperialism?” Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies,Colombo. Jan 16, 2010.
SLELTA Conference on Standards & Varieties of English
Keynote Speaker, 2009
SLELTA Conference on Non-Institutional English Language Teaching and Learning
Prepared Concept Paper, provided introductory overview and final summary of conference. University of Peradeniya, 2009
international conference Towards the MDGs in Violent Conflict: A Call to Action for South Asia
“Development and the MDGs in the Context of Conflict: Things Bad Begun or Earnest of Success?” Main Plenary Lecture, in UNDP/IA/SNV, Kathmandu, 2005
UN Dept of Economic and Social Affairs, Expert Group Meeting
“Development in Conflict or Conflict in Development: Security and Stability for Whom?” Structural Threat to Social Integration: Social Roots of Violent Conflict & Indicators for Prevention, 2001
Oxfam Community Aid Abroad (Australia) Annual Conference
“Conflict and Development” Keynote Address (with Jose Ramos Horta), Brisbane, 2001
Hong Kong Conference
Affinities In Conflict: Strategies For Teaching Literature In Sri Lanka, 2001
UNICEF South Asia Regional Planning Meeting
Katmandu, Nepal, 1999
Subaltern Studies Conference
Catherine Silva’s book of proto-feminist poetry (written in 1894), Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1995
Triennial ACLALS Conference
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1995
Fourth Sri Lanka Studies Conference
Some Comments on Identity as a Function of Politics and Politics as a Function of Identity, 1993
Subaltern Studies Conference
Discourse of/on commercial sex workers in urban Sri Lanka, Hyderabad, India, 1993