Dr. Sandunika Hasangani

Senior Lecturer (Grade II)

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

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Contact:

Central Campus, Colombo Regional Center, 1st floor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences building, Room No: 15

Office: +94 112881083, Ext: 2410

E-mail: kahas@ou.ac.lk

Last Updated on 4 months

Areas of Specialization:

Digital Ethnography, International Relations

Research interests:

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

Affiliations:
  • 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
Programme Coordination:

 

 

Awards:
  • 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
Ongoing Research:
  • Hasangani, S. (2022-2023). “Shared medicinal practices along the Silk Road: Indigenization of Unani medical practice in Buddhist cultures” – Funded by UNESCO Silk Roads Youth Research Grant.
  • Hasangani, Sandunika. “Do South Asians believe in Regionalism? SAARC and beyond, using Twitter data” (under review).
  • Hasangani, Sandunika. and Ladd, Suren. “How do we teach from here? Early career educators’ dilemma of guiding Humanities/Arts and Social Science undergraduates (in Sri Lanka) to be industry ready” (under review).
  • Hasangani, Sandunika and Suren Ladd. “Pedagogical pathways: The contribution of educator agency in addressing digital exclusion in Higher Education in Sri Lanka,” in Equality, inclusion, and exclusion: International perspectives on digital higher education and social justice. Eds. J. Torabian, A. Hadjar and A. Toom, Cambridge Scholars, 2024.
  • Hasangani, Sandunika. “Visualizing everyday nationalism: An insight into the contemporary graffiti wave in Sri Lanka.”

 

Papers presented:

  • 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.
Research Supervisions:

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

Publications:

Journals

Book Chapters

Other Publications

The Open University of Sri Lanka
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