Events

Jointly organized with South Asian Studies Programme, and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Chitra Venkataramani, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Sri Lanka is in the midst of a post-war infrastructure boom, with new investment directed into roads, ports and airports as part of an uneven and contested development process. Taking the transformations unfolding in Colombo as our point of departure, we examine how the vision of Megapolis has animated debates on the geographies of connectivity. The post-war Sri Lankan political landscape initially envisioned political integration, which was to be delivered through the expansion of national road networks; the political priorities in the past decade reoriented away from integrating the nation to the strategic positioning of Colombo as a financial trading hub for South Asia. Focusing on Colombo’s flagship Port City project, we problematise the model of development proposed by foregrounding counter-narratives that speak to concerns around debt, enclosure, persistent ethnic tensions, and the degradation of coastal ecosystems. The construction of Port City, on land reclaimed from the ocean, operates outside of conventional territorial zones and is thus distanced from the social and ecological distress it engenders. In the quest to connect postwar Sri Lanka with regional trading infrastructures and cultivate ties with global capital, there is a simultaneous disconnect from the immediate needs of local populations, ethnic politics and ecosystems.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Kanchana N. Ruwanpura is a Reader in Development Geography at the Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh. She is the Programme Director for the MSc in Environment and Development at her home institution and also serves as editor of Gender, Place and Culture and Geoforum. Until recently (end December 2018) she served for a 3 and 1/2 year period as one of two Directors at the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) at the University of Edinburgh. Since completing her PhD at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, she has worked at University of Southampton (2006-13), Hobart & William Smith Colleges, USA (2004-06), University of Munich, Germany (2002-04) and the International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland (2001-2). Her research explores the intersection between feminism, ethnicity, labour and increasingly on the intersection between the environment and infrastructure, where this research has been funded by numerous grant bodies: such as, UNICEF, ESRC, British Academy, NERC-AHRC-ESRC and ERC. She is the author of a research monograph published by the University of Michigan Press/Zubaan Books, which she penned as a Humboldt Research Fellow. During and since then, she has edited a couple of volumes, authored several peer-reviewed journal articles and is currently working together with Shirlena Huang (National University of Singapore) on an edited volume entitled Gender in Asia for Edward Elgar.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you email to asevents@nus.edu.sg to RSVP.