Visiting Scholar from Sri Lanka to Focus Research on South Asian Writers, Translation Studies

WORCESTER, Mass. – Visiting Fulbright Scholar Carmen Wickramagamage, who teaches English at the University of Peradeniya and was, until recently, the Joint Coordinator of the Program in Translation Studies at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, is teaching and conducting research at the College of the Holy Cross during the current academic year.

She is one of about 800 faculty members and professionals from around the world who have received Fulbright Scholar grants this year for advanced research and university lecturing in the United States.

Commenting on her Fulbright project — titled “Multicultural America: A Project in Translation” — she said: “I am a great believer in the role translation between languages can play both in highlighting the social and cultural diversities that characterize our world and in achieving a degree of mutual intelligibility and understanding across those differences. Translation also offers much needed relief from the global march of English that is threatening the diversity and difference across languages and cultures.”

In the spring semester, she will also teach a course at Holy Cross titled “Women Writers of South Asia” which will rely heavily on translations.

Wickramagamage has completed work as chief editor on two companion volumes of translations (from Sinhala to Tamil and Tamil to Sinhala) of contemporary short stories by Sri Lankan writers written in the two languages, titled (if they were to be translated into English) “Our Neighbors.”

Among her many published articles are “Unraveling the Story of the Sari” in Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities (2003-04), and “Sri Lankan Organizations for Women: A Critical Appraisal,” in Women and Politics in Sri Lanka: A Comparative Perspective (1999).

Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program is America’s flagship international educational exchange program and is sponsored by the U.S. Department State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Individual Fulbright grants are available for scholars from 130 countries to conduct research, lecture or pursue combined lecturing and research in the United States. Under the Visiting Fulbright Scholar Program, scholars apply in their home country for Fulbright awards.