Talk on "Sri Lanka in May 2009: Then, Now and the Future"

Dr Dagmar Hellman Rajanayagam, who was in UKM from 1996 to 2001 and is now Acting Professor in the Chair of Southeast Studies (Insular) at the University of Passau, will be giving a talk on “Sri Lanka in May 2009: Then, Now and the Future”

When: Saturday, 26^th March 2011 at 7.30 pm

Where: President’s Room, Royal Selangor Club, Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur

Dr. Dagmar Hellman Rajanayagam is an expert in the contemporary developments in Sri Lanka.

Dr Dagmar studied Indology, History of Asia and Comparative Religion at the Universities of Hamburg and Heidelberg; Ph.D. in 1982; D.Litt. 1998; she has been among others a Junior Research Fellow in Singapore, 1982-83, Research Fellow at St. Antonys College, Oxford, 1985-86 and at the German Historical Institute London, 1986-1991, Acting Chair, University of Kiel, Dept. of Asian History, 1990-91, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor, National University Malaysia, Bangi, 1996-2001.

Major Publications: Peace Initiatives Towards Reconciliation and Nation Building in Sri Lanka. An International Perspective. Proceedings of the Workshop 13-15th July 2001 Bangi, Malaysia (Ed.), Kuala Lumpur 2002; The Tigers - Armed Struggle for Identity, Beiträge zur Südasienforschung 157, Stuttgart 1994, repr. 1997; Nationalstaat und Sprachenkonflikte in Süd- und Südostasien (ed. together with Dietmar Rothermund), Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, Stuttgart 1992; Tamil - Sprache als politisches Symbol, Wiesbaden 1984; also a number of articles, among others: Religious Ideology Among the Tamils, in: Barrie Morrison et al. (Eds.); Struggling to Create a New Society: Sri Lanka in the Era of Globalization, Sage India, in press; From Differences to Ethnic Solidarity Among the Tamils, in: ibid., in press.

She has organised several conferences on nationalist and ethnic questions, including the one in 2001 in Bangi, Malaysia, on Reconciliation in Sri Lanka together with Dato Dr. D. M. Thuraiappah the then President of the Malaysian Ceylonese Congress. Leading scholars on the situation in Sri Lanka and well known persons and journalists from both sides of the divide from various parts of the world attended including prominent lawyer Mr Visvanathan Rudrakumar who came all the way from New York.

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