Department of English
K 2 102
University of Kelaniya
Sri Lanka

Email: shashikalam@kln.ac.lk (University)

Educational Qualification

2015: PhD American and Canadian Studies ( University of Nottingham, UK)

2007: MA English Literature ( Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

2004: BA English ( Specialised) ( Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka)

Other Academic Training

2018 : Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School, University of Oxford, UK- 2018- An Introduction to Digital Humanities (02^nd – 06^th July 2018)

2018- to date : Senior Lecturer ( Gr II) Department of English, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
2017 – to date: Lecturer (Visiting), Postgraduate Institute of English (PGIE), Open University of Sri Lanka
2015 – 2018: Lecturer (Visiting), Department of English, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
2017/ 2020 : Lecturer (Visiting), Department of English, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka
2015: Lecturer (Visiting), English Language Teaching Unit, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
2011: Lecturer (Probationary), Department of Languages, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka
2008 – 2010: Lecturer (Assistant), English Language Teaching Unit, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. 

Book Chapters 

“Memory, Nostalgia and finding oneself in Divakaruni’s fiction” in Critical Perspectives on Chitra Divakaruni: Feminism and Diaspora. Eds Amritjit Singh and Samina Najmi. Jaipur: Rawat (South Asia) / Lanham: Lexington Books (worldwide). (Forthcoming) 

“Domesticating the Alien: Culinary references and food rituals in Song of the Sun God’. Alien Domiciles: Diasporic Inquiries into South Asian Women’s Narratives. Ed. Shilpa Bhat. Maryland: Lexington Books. 2020. 

“Fragmented Ethnic Identities of Individual Women: Nayomi Munaweera’s Island of a Thousand Mirrors”. Women Writers of the South Asian Diaspora: Interpreting Gender, Texts and Contexts. Eds. Ajay K Chaubey and Shilpa Bhat. Jaipur: Rawat. 2020. pp 161-176.

“Kitchen Politics and the search for an Identity: The Mango Season.” Ed. Sandhya Rao Mehta. Exploring Gender in the Literature of the Indian Diaspora. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.2015. pp 119-133.

Papers 

“Children, Burghers and Tamils On Sal Mal Lane: the subaltern’s narrative of the ethnic riots” Critical and Creative Wings. Vol IV (2017).

Contemporary Pakistani American Women Writers: Writing their own stories, finding their own voices. US studies Online. (13^th July 2015).

“Writing for the Diaspora, from the Diaspora” Phoenix: Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth. Vol X &XI. (2013 & 2014).

“The Road from Elephant Pass: the novel. A dominant discourse on the cultural history of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict?” Journal of the Faculty of Humanities. Vol XII. (2010). 

“English Tuition: Who? Why? For whom?’ An analysis of three case studies on non-school English tuition”. SLELTA Quarterly .9.1( 2009).

“‘A reading camp in Kirulapone’: The experience of organising a Reading camp”. SLELTA Quarterly .8.1(2008).
 

Other

Sri Lankan American Culture: An Encyclopedia entry for the Encyclopedia of Asian American Culture: From Anime to Tiger Moms ( Vol 2). Ed. Lan Dong. Santa Barbara: Greenwood. March 2016. pp 601-605

Selected Conference Papers

2020 - DHARTI Twitter Conference 19/01/2020 (Archived conference presentation) Twitter presentation on 'Digitising the Vote' https://twitter.com/i/events/1218778110746861568 

2019 - “Reimagining identities in diasporic homelands”. (Research paper) Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS), Auckland, New Zealand. 15^th- 19^th July

2016 - “The Hungry Ghosts of Our Collective Pasts: Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts and cosmopolitan rootlessness of our diasporic affiliations”. (Research paper) Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLAS), Kandy, Sri Lanka. 29^th- 30^th October

2016 - “The multiethnic lane: 1983 riots and urban housing communities in July and On Sal Mal Lane” (Research paper) 9th Annual Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) research conference 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 24, 25 & 26 March.

2014 - “Children, Burghers and Tamils On Sal Mal Lane: the subaltern’s narrative of the ethnic riots” (Research paper). South Asia by the Bay. Graduate conference on women and gender. University of Santa Cruz, California. 2^nd & 3^rd May.

2013 - Research Paper on “War memories” for the CLAS Symposium: Memory Matters II, University of Nottingham. 27 June. 

2013 - “Writing for the diaspora, from the diaspora: Love Marriage as a diasporic narrative”. (Research paper) Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLAS), Colombo, Sri Lanka. 28^th- 30^th June. 

2013 - “Exploring South Indian Diasporic women’s identity through South Indian food: Amulya Malladi’s The Mango Season”. (Research paper) British Association for American Studies 58^th Annual conference, University of Exeter. 18^th- 21^st April. 

2012 - “Small town identities and innocence in Sri Lankan American women’s writing” (Research paper) Young South Asian Scholars Meet, University of Heidelberg, Germany 14^th -16^th June.

2012 - “Are we exotic, rebellious or simply stereotyped? South Asian women in American cinema” (Research paper) Scottish Association for the study of America postgraduate symposium, University of Glasgow: 17^th March

2010 - “Shakespeare and Transvestism: A mode of female empowerment?” (Research paper) CENWOR 12^th National Conference, Colombo: 03^rd July.

2008 - “Promoting Language acquisition through Extensive Reading” (workshop) Conducted in collaboration with Dinali Fernando. NIE, Maharagama, Sri Lanka. SLELTA Conference.

Research Interests

Diasporic Literature
Postcolonial studies
Science fiction and Dystopian literature
Women’s writing
Food writing
Popular Cultural productions ( Anime, Manga, Movies, TV series)

2019 - Gratiaen Prize Long List  https://www.gratiaen.com/archives/gratiaen-prize-long-list-2019

2018 – Bursary Holder, Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School, University of Oxford, UK

2013 – Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust – Competitive funding for graduate studies.

2012/2013/ 2014 - School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, University of Nottingham, University of Santa Cruz, California and South Asian Institute, University of Heidelberg – Graduate conference funding.

2011 – International Research Excellence Scholarship, University of Nottingham, UK – Scholarship for PhD in American and Canadian Studies.

2004 - Gold Medal for the Best student (best overall performance in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences 2001-2004) Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.

Invited lectures/ keynotes

2020 - Keynote speech , Sri Lankan English Language Teacher Educator Conference (SLELTEC) 2020
           ‘New avenues and challenges in today’s classrooms – teaching literature in a digital age’ https://www.britishcouncil.lk/sites/default/files/1._shashikala_assella.pdf
            Conference proceedings https://www.britishcouncil.lk/programmes/education/sleltec-proceedings-2020
            Event schedule https://www.britishcouncil.lk/sites/default/files/sleltec_2020_-_full_schedule.pdf

 2020 – Keynote speech on “English literature: New avenues and challenges in today’s classrooms” at Sri Lanka Teacher Educator Conference 2020 ( SLELTEC 2020) organised by The British Council, Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka. 05^th March 2020.

2017 - Plenary at ‘The 4^th National Conference on Language Assessment and 19^th National RESC conference 2017’ organised by the National Institute of Education, Maharagama, Sri Lanka. 6-8 November 2017.

2015 - Lecture on “Contemporary South Asian women’s fiction from America” for University of Nottingham, Sutton Trust Summer School