Siri Gamage

Dr. Siri Gamage was born in Ethpitiya, Walasmulla, Sri Lanka and had his early school education at Walasmulla Maha Vidyalaya. Thereafter, he had university education in Sociology at the University of Ceylon (1968-72). He obtained an in Sociology from the University of Hawaii (1977-79) and a Ph. D in anthropology & Sociology from Monash University, Australia. His research focused on social inequality in rural Kandyan highlands. From 1974-1986 he served on the academic staff of the sociology department, University of Peradeniya.During this time he conducted research on Sri Lankan Veddhas at a time when the Mahaweli River Development project was in initial stages of development.From 1986-1990 he spent time with his family in Melbourne's Monash University preparing his PhD thesis.
At the end of 1990 he was appointed as lecturer in multicultural studies at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. Later he was promoted to be a senior lecturer. Since then he has been involved in teaching about immigrants, multiculturalism, intercultural issues. Later he has been teaching in the pre-service teacher education program focusing on social justice issues. Dr. Gamage has been a commentator and writer on issues of ethnic difference and conflict in Sri Lanka as well as Sri Lankan immigrants in Australia. He co-edited a book with I.B. Watson titled Conflict and Community in Sri Lanka, in 1999. The book was published by Sage, New Delhi. A book chapter on Sri Lanka is available in a book published by Manohar, India titled Crises of State and Nation: South Asian States Between nation-Building and Fragmentation Eds, John Neelsen and Dipak Malik. Another academic contribution on Sri Lanka's education can be found at the UNE Asia Centre Web Site as a UNEAC Electronic Journal article:'Critical Discourses on Globalisation, Knowledge Economy and Public Education: the case of Sri Lanka', December 2006: A book chapter on critical education and race theory are to be published in a book to be published by Pearson, Australia at the end of 2008.
From 1999-2002 he conducted field research with Sri Lankan immigrants and their children in Australia. Based on this research he has published papers. Details of one such paper can be found in a book published by the International Cultural Research Network(ICRN) web site.A book chapter on critical education and race theory is to be published in a book on education by Pearson, Australia at the end of 2008.He has written a series of articles on Ethpitiya near Walasmulla where he was born to CeyLankan -Journal of the Ceylon Society of Australia. They focus on the people, place, events and memories relating to 1950s1960s. Ethpitiya was a village in transition as are other villages described my Martin Wickramasinghe in his novels. However, the articles by Siri Gamage are non fiction. Copies can be available by contacting the editor Mr. Sumane Ayer who lives in Sydney.
Currently he is a senior lecturer in the School of Education, University of New England, Armidale, NSW Australia 2351. He is also coordinating the master of Education program in international schooling & development. He has active teaching & research interests on intecultural identity,culture and education issues. He is married to Lalani and have two children, Chaturi and Chamira Gamage.

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