Please note: this event has passed
This event will feature a first, full screening of the documentary film, Hidden Voices. The film looks at healing and struggles for justice in North-East Sri Lanka since the end of the Sri Lankan war. The film explores different types of trauma and the various ways that people have sought to address a difficult past, including formal protest, religion and ritual healing, communal art and Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim women’s networks. The film was the product of a two-year Economic and Social Research Council-funded project (hiddenvoices.co.uk).
The event marks the ten-year anniversary of the end of the Sri Lankan civil war (which came to a military end on May 18, 2009). The screening will be followed by a panel and audience discussion. The participants will be:
- The film-maker, Rebekka Friedman (King’s College London)
Rebekka Friedman is senior lecturer in International Relations in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London in the UK. Her research and teaching focus on reconciliation, transitional justice, collective memory, gender and peace-building. She has conducted field research in rural and urban areas in Sri Lanka, Peru, Colombia and Sierra Leone. Her book, Competing Memories: Truth and Reconciliation in Sierra Leone and Peru, was published in 2017. She is also a project investigator with the Justice, Conflict and Development project, which examines the relationship between justice and development in Sri Lanka, Colombia, Syria and Uganda. She just completed a two-year Economic and Social Research Council project, Hidden Voices, which generated the documentary for the event. The research examined experiences of marginalization and recovery in constrained contexts, focusing in particular on families of the disappeared and female combatants.
- Dushyanthy Pillai (King’s College London)
Dushyanthy Pillai is doctoral research student at King’s College London, investigating the role of transitional justice in contributing to reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Previously she worked in international development around the world, working with Save the Children, Action Aid and UN amongst others. She worked in Sri Lanka between 2002-2018 including in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Trincomalee, Galle, Matara and Hambantota. Dushy is also a trustee of Conciliation Resources, an international organisation committed to stopping violent conflicts and creating more peaceful societies. Dushy holds a masters in Human Rights from University College London and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants.
-
Mats Berdal (King's College London)
Mats Berdal is Professor of Security and Development at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where he is also the Programme Director for the MA in Conflict, Security and Development and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Programme (CSDRG). He joined the department in 2003, having previously been Director of Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London from 2000 to 2003.
- Thrisantha Nanayakkara (Imperial College)
Thrishantha Nanayakkara is a Reader in Design Engineering and Robotics, and the Head of the Robotics and Manufacturing Theme at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London. Thrish has been a senior lecturer in robotics at King’s College London, Radcliffe Fellow, Harvard University, USA, research affiliate at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, USA, and a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA. His research interests are in morphological computation, soft robotics, and human-robot interaction. From 2003 – 2006 Thrish was a senior lecturer at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, where he led a research team to develop field robotics solutions and mongoose training to detect anti-personal landmines. This gave him a brief exposure to victims of war, and politics around humanitarian demining, and reconciliation. Thrish has written his personal during and after the armed conflict in Sri Lanka in Harvard Crimson, Sri Lanka Guardian, and Colombo Telegraph.
- Eniga de Montfort (Tamil Association of Professionals)
Eniga de Montfort is a trustee of the organisation, The Tamil Association of Professionals (‘TAP’). TAP works to bring together and connect the Tamil professional diaspora community in the UK and offers a safe, open and inclusive platform for the exchange of thoughts and ideas. Eniga was born in North-East Sri-Lanka and fled to France as a refugee in the mid 1980s following the outbreak of the Sri-Lankan civil war. Eniga won a full scholarship to an American school in Paris and subsequently came to the UK to complete her studies and embark on her career as a solicitor. Eniga is currently a partner specialising in corporate transactions at a City law firm.
The event will double as a fundraiser to raise money for victims of the recent Easter bombings in the country.
Light refreshments and nibbles will follow.
The event will be hosted by the Conflict, Security and Development Group and the War Crimes Research Group.
For questions please contact: