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You are here: OUSL / Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences / Dept. of Social Studies

Dr. Sandunika Hasangani

BA (Colombo), MA (TUFS-Tokyo, Japan), PhD (TUFS-Tokyo, Japan)

Senior Lecturer (Gr. II)

Department of Social Studies
  • Central Campus, Colombo Regional Center, 1st floor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences building, Room No: 15
  • Office: +94 112881083, Ext: 2410
  • kahas@ou.ac.lk

Digital Ethnography, International Relations

Ethnic tolerance, identity construction and communal relations on social media, New media and conflict, Political communication, Visual and multisensory International Relations/Politics, Visual peace research, Digital peacebuilding theory and practice, Social media data analysis, quantitative and mix-method research, visual data analysis, Computational Social Sciences

Ongoing Research:

  • Hasangani, Sandunika. “Visualizing everyday nationalism: An insight into the contemporary graffiti wave in Sri Lanka.”
  • Hasangani, Sandunika. “Digital battlegrounds: Disinformation, Misinformation and Social Media Propaganda and the Kashmir Conflict in India and Pakistan” Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology Open Laboratory for Emergence Strategies (ROLES) of the University of Tokyo.
  • Hasangani, Sandunika and Suren Ladd (2025). “Pedagogical Pathways: The Contribution of Educator Agency in Addressing Digital Exclusion in Higher Education in Sri Lanka”. In J. E. Torabian, A. Hadjar, & A. Toom (Eds.), Digitalisation, inclusion, and exclusion in higher education: Reflections on theory and practice (pp. 146–168). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Hasangani, Sandunika. 2021. “Regionalism as a strategy to mitigate online radicalization: The role of BIMSTEC.” In BIMSTEC: The Journey and the way forward, Sreeradha Datta (ed.), New Delhi: Pentagon Press.
  • Hasangani, Sandunika. 2015. “The Redemption.” In Write to Reconcile II: An Anthology, Shyam Selvadurai (ed.), p. 61-72. Colombo: National Peace Council.  https://www.shyamselvadurai.com/doc/Write_to_Reconcile_Anthology_2.pdf

Journals

 

Other Publications

Papers presented:

  • S. Hasangani, “Narrative Framing, Conspiracy Theories, Propaganda and Hate Speech between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack: An Analysis of Twitter Data,” Study Group on ‘Theory and Practice of Conflict Resolution,’ ROLES-University of Tokyo, Colombo, September 2025. 
  • Hasangani, S. (2025). “Shared medicinal practices along the Silk Road: Indigenization of Unani medical practice in Buddhist cultures.” Youth dialogue on the Future along the Silk Roads, UNESCO HQ-Paris, June 2025.
  • Hasangani, S. and S. Jayasundara-Smits, “Tracing Indigenised Notion of Good Life; A Backward Journey Along the Ancient Silk Road,” EADI CESA-ISEG General Conference 2023, Lisbon, Portugal, 11 July 2023.
  • Hasangani, S. “Does state collapse reduce ethnic salience/identification? A reflection on Sri Lanka’s internal turmoil in 2022”, Yale Modern South Asia Workshop (Yale Macmillan Center), Kathmandu, Nepal, 29-30 July 2022.
  • Hasangani, S. “Social media and radicalization/ideological polarization: Preventive measures and policy implications,” Second BIMSTEC Think Tank Dialogue on Regional Security, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi, 27-28 November 2019.
  • Hasangani, S. “Virtual construction of Sinhalaness on social media in post-war Sri Lanka (2009-2018),” Asian Studies Conference Japan, University of Saitama, June 2019.
  • Hasangani, S. “Non-fixity and Plurality of Ethnic Identity: The Case of Muslims in Sri Lanka,” ECPR General Conference, University of Oslo, Norway, September 6-9, 2017.
  • Hasangani, S. “Experimenting the Theory of Balance of Power in a Domestic Context: The Case of Sinhalese-Muslim Intolerance in Post-War Sri Lanka,” 16th International Graduate Student Conference, East-West Centre/ University of Hawaii, USA, February 16-18, 2017.
  • Hasangani, S. “Blurred Boundaries of Ethnicity: The Case of Muslims in Sri Lanka,” 7th Annual Symposium, Consortium for Asian and African Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan, October 22-23, 2016.
  • Hasangani, S. “Social Revolutionary Dynamics of the Arab Spring: Foreign Policy Implications for Sri Lanka,” International Research Conference on ‘Sri Lanka in World Affairs.’ University of Colombo, July 03-04, 2014.

*Available to supervise Masters & Doctoral students as Principal/Co Supervisor.

  • 2020-Current – Varieties of Democracy Project, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 2019-Current – Member of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
  • 2019-2020 – Member of Asian Studies Association, USA
  • 2017-2019 – Member of British Association of South Asian Studies, UK
  • 2022-2023 – UNESCO Silk Roads Youth Research Grant
  • 2019 – Linda Grove Graduate Paper Award, Asian Studies Association, Japan
  • 2016-2019 – Japanese Government (MEXT) Full Scholarship for Doctoral Studies
  • 2015 – 31st Eisaku Sato Award of Excellence, Eisaku Sato Memorial Foundation/United Nations University, Japan
  • 2014-2016 – Japanese Government (MEXT) Full Scholarship for Graduate Studies
  • 2022 – Conference Grant, Yale MacMillan Centre, Yale University, USA
  • 2019 – Conference Grant, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi, India
  • 2017 – Conference Grant, East-West Center, Hawaii, USA
  • 2017 – Conference Grant, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Education Fund
  • 2015 – Field Research Grant, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Education Fund

Professional Qualifications/Training and Certificates: 

  • 2022 – Digital Peacebuilding 101: Introducing Technology for Peacebuilding – BuildUp
  • 2022 – Disability Awareness and Sensitization Course for Academics – University of Colombo
  • 2022 – Online Short Course in Disability Inclusive Education for Academics – University of Colombo
  • 2021 – Teaching in Higher Education, The University of Hong Kong
  • 2021 – International Data Workshop: South Asia, Clark Library, University of Michigan
  • 2020 – Certificate in Basic Statistics, Institute of Applied Statistics, Sri Lanka
  • 2018 – Certificates in Fundamentals of Data Science for Social Scientists, University of California Berkeley
  • 2014 – Teacher Training in International Humanitarian Law, ICRC-Colombo/Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • 2014 – Certificate in Research Methodology, National Institute of Library and Information Sciences, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • 2012 – Certificate in Project Management, National Institute of Business Management, Sri Lanka