Thamali Kithsiri joined the Department of Geography in 2011 as an Assistant Lecturer, and in 2013 she joined the permanent staff. Thamali received her BA and MA in Geography from the University of Peradeniya and PhD from Zurich in Switzerland. Thamali’s teaching interests include Human Geography. Her primary research work focuses on space and place making, identity politics, nationalism, popular geopolitics, and everyday geography.
Department of Geography, University of Zurich
2021
A Member/ Secretary - Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Arts
2022 - To Present
Affiliated Researcher - Department of Geography, Political Geography, University of Zurich
2021 - To Present
Senior Treasurer-Geography Society - Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya
2021 - 2022
Coordinator-Master of Development Practice - Postgraduate Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences
March 2022 - March 2025
Editor-in-chief/ PGIHS Research Congress 2024 - Postgraduate Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences
2024
Editor-in-Chief, Research Congress 2023 - PGIHS
- 2023
Editor-in-chief/ PGIHS Research Congress 2022 - Postgraduate Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences
- 2022
Resource Person: Geography II (GYG 2) - General Degree Examination in Arts (External) - Centre for Distance & Continuing Education, University of Peradeniya
2015
Resource Person: Geography IV (GYG 4) - General Degree Examination in Arts (External) - Centre for Distance & Continuing Education, University of Peradeniya
2015
Member of Teaching Panel: Certificate Course in Geography for School Teachers - Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya
2014
Resource Person: Geography II (GYF 2)- General Degree Examination in Arts (External) - Centre for Distance & Continuing Education, University of Peradeniya
2014
Resource Person: Geography II (GG2) - General Degree Examination in Arts (External) - Centre for Distance & Continuing Education, University of Peradeniya
2014
Assistant Lecturer - Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya
2011 - 2013
Member - Association of Sri Lanka Geographers
Member - British Association of South Asian Studies
2019/2020
Kithsiri, T. N., & Hennayake, N. M. (2022). Imagining National Identity in Everyday Discourse: Reflections on Political Cartoons in Sri Lanka between 2005 and 2006. Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology, 1(2): 24 – 43.
https://arts.pdn.ac.lk/socio/research/pdf/2022_02_Nalani%20M.%20Hennayake.pdf
Hennayake, N.M and Kithsiri, T.N (2023) Reading GOTAGOGAMA with Henri Lefebvre's Three-Dimensional Dialectics of Space. (pp. 226-230) Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Sciences and Languages, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.
G.A.M.D.S. Wickramasinghe, M.N.F. Fasla, D.P.N. Thathsarani, W.M.K. Yasara, S. Abiramy, P.G.D.M. Senadeera, T.N. Kithsiri. (2024) A political Geography Study on Gender Representation Among Academics at the University of Peradeniya. Paper presented at the 10th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (iConArts 2024) at the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, 21 November 2024.
G.G.J. Chamodya, K.R.A.D. Senevirathna, W.D.U. Fernando, K.D.R.N.D.S. Wimalasekara, H.W.G. Nayananjali, T.N. Kithsiri (2024) Cricket and Politics in Sri Lanka: Examining the Impact of Political Interference. Paper presented at the 10th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (iConArts 2024) at the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, 21 November 2024.
Kithsiri, Thamali, Kumarathunga, Danushka, de Silva, Roshana, & Bandara, Indika (2024) 303: A Bus Journey Through Cultural Geography Approach. Documentary presented at the First Research Conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches organized by the NIIBS, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
https://niibs.lk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IRCIA-Book-of-abstracts.pdf
Hennayake, N, Kithsiri, T, & Weerasuriya, B. (2023) Yellow Robe and Saree? The Masculinity of the Everyday State of Sri Lanka. World Anthropology Congress, Delhi.
https://iuaes2023delhi.org/panelabstractsdetail.aspx?vrd=1701
Kithsiri, T.N (2022) Making Us from Them: Identity Politics in the Peripheries. Paper presented (virtually) at The Art of New Alternatives: Nation-Building and the Creation of a new Community in Contemporary Sri Lankan Art Conference at TU, Dresden, Germany.
Hennayake H.A.N.M and Kithsiri T.N (2016) National Identity as an everyday discourse: Reflections from cartoons. Extended Abstract presented at the International Conference on the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Peradeniya
Proceedings: Annual Research Congress 2024, Postgraduate Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Peradeniya.
Proceedings: Annual Research Congress 2023, Postgraduate Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Peradeniya.
This is a research documentary presented at the the First Research Conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches organized by the NIIBS. To site it: Kithsiri, Thamali, Kumarathunga, Danushka, de Silva, Roshana, & Bandara, Indika (Directors). 2024. “303: A Bus Journey Through Cultural Geography Approach” [Research Documentary: Online Video]. Canton Cinema.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMBKmqrC_GM&list=PLoFRtDQJF42XNrVpJgbbtYHBszStVo_gu
‘Fifty-Fifty’: Identity Politics, Negotiations, and Transformations in Paanama, Sri Lanka. 2021. PhD Dissertation. University of Zurich
Sri Lanka Round Table
Organizing Committee Member & Paper Presented
The University of Zurich, Switzerland
September, 2018
British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS)
Paper Presented
Durham University, UK
April 2019
This is a research documentary presented at the the First Research Conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches organized by the NIIBS. To site it: Kithsiri, Thamali, Kumarathunga, Danushka, de Silva, Roshana, & Bandara, Indika (Directors). 2024. “303: A Bus Journey Through Cultural Geography Approach” [Research Documentary: Online Video]. Canton Cinema. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMBKmqrC_GM&list=PLoFRtDQJF42XNrVpJgbbtYHBszStVo_gu
Cultural Odyssey is a fieldwork diary prepared by the students as part of the assessments of the undergraduate course of ‘Culture & Space’ (GGY 4048) 2022/2023. This group project includes an assembly of selected photographs students captured while in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. This work aims to understand local places within the context of culture and space. Link copy & paste: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1D9faM_bS9Q4uTQpJmYlZD1e6R-0zNf3N?usp=sharing
GGY 4064 - Political Ecology of the Global South
Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya
2025 - To Present
GGY 4048 - Culture and Space
Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya
To Present
GGY 2029 - Political Geography
Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya
To Present
DPR 513 - Human Impact on the Natural Environment
Master of Development Practices/ PGIHS
To Present
PhD Thesis Examiner - Faculty of Graduate Studies
University of Colombo
2023
GEO 122.2 - Human Geography II
Department of Geography, Political Geography, University of Zurich
2018 FS, 2019 FS - 2021 FS
Supervisor - Bachelor Thesis
Department of Geography, Political Geography, University of Zurich
2020
External Examiner - Master Thesis
Department of Geography, Political Geography, University of Zurich
2018 - 2019
Space and Place Making
Identity Politics
Nationalism
Popular Geopolitics
Everyday Geography
URG/2023/42/A ‘Politicization of Contested Histories through Heritage Conservation: A Case Study of Kurugala'
Guest lectures on 'Writing & Organising the Thesis: Structuring Chapters for Clarity and Cohesion' and 'Data Collection Techniques of Qualitative Research.' Dissertation and Creative Production Workshop organised by the Department of Communication and Creative Arts, University of Colombo. 10th-12th February 2025.
Kithsiri Thamali & Wijesuriya Manuja (2025) Buses as Social Microcosm: Narratives from its Subculture. Muragala: Centre for Progressive Politics & Policy. https://muragala.lk/articles/buses-as-social-microcosm-narratives-from-its-subculture/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIXj2RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUMBI7Ks62ACpcdbYLzNwGZgO3CBFBhQWL_vGWoiGDZ4_PwTz6YdaUirww_aem_XtRv4dZGidN6KHX4e69pGg
Public lecture on 'මැතිවරණ ප්රතිඵල=මැතිවරණ සිතියම (Geography of Elections)' at Nuwara Cafe organised by Conversation Cafe Sri Lanka (සං)වාද මණ්ඩපය-මහනුවර, 08.11.2024.
Public lecture on 'ග්ලෝකල් යුගයක අපේකම' (Negotiating 'Our-ness' in a Glocalised Era) at the Kandy City Center organised by Project.Activate, Artivists Society Sri Lanka, 19.07.2024.
A speaker (Experiencing State in Everyday Life through Pilgrimages in Post-War Sri Lanka) for the Roundtable 02 titled 'Everyday Experience of the State n South Asia' for International Conference on South Asia 2023 organised by ISAS, National University of Singapore, 24.10.2023.
Guest lecture on 'Sacred Geographies: Sinhalization of Shared Spaces in Southern Sri Lanka.' Organized by the Department of Linguistic & English, University of Jaffna, 29.09.2023.
Public lecture on ‘Fifty-Fifty’: Mixed Identity in Paanama, Sri Lanka. Organized by the House of Religions in Bern, Switzerland, 2021.
Guest lecture on ‘Urbanization in the Developing World’ for Advanced Level Students organized by Sri Lanka Geography School Teachers Association, 2015.
Guest lecture on ‘Population in South Asia’ for Advanced Level Students organized by Sri Lanka Geography School Teachers Association, 2014.