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Publication Program
The most consistent preoccupation of the Colombo Institute is its publication program. The Institute strongly believes in critical writings on society, culture and politics in the country and beyond. It is hoped that critical literature in the social sciences and humanities would, in the long run, help expand the critical thinking abilities of youth. Towards this end, the Institute’s publication program uses the Sinhala and Tamil languages as it main medium of communication. The English language publication program, which is at present in its initial phase, is designed to take the activities of the Institute beyond the borders of Sri Lanka into the South Asia region and beyond. The South Asia Journal for Culture was designed specifically with this regional and global interest in mind. This initiative has been funded by the Ford Foundation through Theertha International Artists’ Collective.
Publications:
Patitha & Panuwal Journals
Since 2003, Colombo Institute has been publishing two annual refereed journals, Patitha (in Sinhala) and Panuwal (in Tamil). So far, through these journals, Colombo Institute has focussed its attention on improving what might be called the ‘high end’ of local knowledge production in the social sciences and humanities with an emphasis on the politics of culture.
Patitha Style Sheet
Patitha English – Sinhala, Sinhala – English Glossary of Technical Terms
(For Social Sciences and Cultural Studies), 2006The glossary stems from the work of the Colombo Institute’s annual refereed journal Patitha that contained a similar glossary from the second volume onwards in response to requests made by readers after reading the first volume. The present glossary is an expansion of this initial effort, which the institute considers an incomplete and ongoing effort as well as a collective social enterprise.
Reading Sri Lankan Society: Selected Essays, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 (2007)
In 2007, Colombo Institute published three volumes in the Sinhala language containing 35 key research based essays that address issues of society, politics and culture in Sri Lanka. The majority of the essays are essentially translations of originals that have already been published but are relatively inaccessible to most Sri Lankans because they are written in English and published in journals or books not easily accessible in the country. The disciplinary areas where these essays have been drawn vary from sociology, social anthropology and history on the one hand and art history and cultural studies on the other.
Alternate Space: Trivial Writings of an Academic by Sasanka Perera (2004).
Conceived as a fundraising activity for the Colombo Institute, this book contains a collection of forty-eight critical essays dealing with issues such as politics of culture, religion, ethnicity, nationalism, war, visual culture etc. The essays were originally serialized in the national daily, The Island between 2002 and 2004 (ISBN 955-1157-00-1).
Frozen Tears: Political Violence, Women, Children and Problems of Trauma in Southern Sri Lanka by Indika Bulankulame (2nd Edition, 2006).
Based on extensive anthropological fieldwork in the Kandyan highlands and through a presentation of individuals’ personal narratives, this book explores how individuals deal with and address a past filled with political violence and trauma with a focus on women and children (ISBN 955-1493-06-0).
Monographs on Alternate Discourses on Development.
In 2007, Colombo Institute launched a monograph series on alternate discourses on development based on the specific premise that despite the centrality of the dynamics and rhetoric of development in contemporary Sri Lanka, no serious exchange of ideas on the academic domains in the country has taken place on the politics of development. The following issues have been published sop far:
Mercenaries, Missionaries and Misfits: Representations of Development Personnel – By R.L. Stirrat
Parochial Cosmopolitanism and the Power of Nostalgia: Some Manifestations of Development Practice - R.L. Stirrat and D. Rajak
South Asia Journal for Culture
South Asia Journal for Culture is co-published by Colombo Institute in collaboration with Theertha International Artists’ Collective as a regional forum to explore dynamics and politics of culture with a focus on visual arts, literature music, theatre, architecture and so on. Volume 1 (2007) is now available and Volume 2 (2008) is expected to be published in 2008.