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Suren Raghavan
Sri Lankan academic and politician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Suren Raghavan (Tamil: சுரேன் ராகவன், romanized: Curēṉ Rākavaṉ; Sinhala: සුරේන් රාගවන්, romanized: Surēn Rāgavan) is a Sri Lankan academic and former Governor of the Northern Province. He is of biethnic heritage, classed as Sri Lankan Tamil due to paternal descent.[1]
Raghavan joined the University of Kent's School of Political and International Relations in 2005 on a scholarship from the James Madison Trust and received a Master of Arts degree after producing a dissertation on federalism in Sri Lanka.[2][3] He then carried out research at the University of Ottawa before returning to the University of Kent in 2008 on another James Madison Trust scholarship to study for his doctorate degree.[2][4] He was also an Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme scholar from 2008 to 2011 and a recipient of the Ontario Student Assistance Program award.[2][3] In 2012 he received a doctorate politics and government from the University of Kent after producing a thesis titled Multimational Federaiism and Sinhala Buddhism. Is there a (In)compatibility? The Case of Ethnonationalism in Sri Lanka.[3][5]
Raghavan was a visiting professor at Saint Paul University, research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and a visiting research scholar at the University of Colombo's Department of History.[2][3][6][7] He was chairperson and national director of Colombo School for Critical Studies.[7] He has been a jury member for several film festivals including the OCIC, South Indian Film Federation and Asian Cinema Centre.[7] He organised the Indian Film Festival in Colombo.[7]
Raghavan was appointed adviser to President Maithripala Sirisena and director of the Presidential Media Unit in November 2018.[3][8] In January 2019 he was appointed Governor of the Northern Province by Sirisena.[9][10] Following the presidential election in November 2019, newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered Raghavan and all other provincial governors to resign.[11][12] Following the 2020 parliamentary election he was appointed to the Parliament of Sri Lanka as a National List MP representing the Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance.[13][14][15]
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Works
- Buddhist Monks and the Politics of Lanka’s Civil War: Ethnoreligious Nationalism of the Sinhala Sangha and Peacemaking in Sri Lanka, 1995-2010 (2018, Equinox Publishing)[2]
- Post-War Militancy of Sinhala Saṅgha: Reasons and Reactions (Oxford University Press)[2]
References
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