International conference on humanities and social sciences in November

The fifth international research conference on Humanities and Social Sciences will take place at the Sri Jayewardenepura University on November 10 and 11. Transformation for empowerment: moving beyond buzzwords is the theme of the conference. More than 150 papers are to be presented authored by local and international scholars.

Professor Sampath Amaratunge, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura said "As reflected in its theme, Transformation for empowerment: moving beyond buzzwords this conference offers an excellent forum for scholars and professionals to address issues related to empowerment and thus make a concerted effort to actually move beyond buzzwords and take bold decisions and initiate implementation".

"I am sure, this will indeed be a challenging task for all the stakeholders of the conference because, transformation, as witnessed in the Sri Lankan context is a slow process characterised by constraints and obstacles," the Vice Chancellor noted.

Professor Rohan Samarajiva said this conference is being held at a moment when the role of university academics is being redefined.

"Even in well resourced universities in developed countries, not all faculty members take research to policy. The chances of good research being done and the findings being communicated in ways that will effectively inform policy processes is lower in universities in the developing countries.''

Professor Samarajiva remarked that the challenge, of course, is how to combine diversity along with incentives for high quality outputs.

The conference organizers quoting Einstein on research and practice said 'The purpose of intellect is the transformation of a miracle to something understandable' adding that they are confident that the wide array of papers ranging from ethnic folklore to the role of identities will lead to a fruitful discussion on how research could guide to informed policy formulation and greater empowerment.

Dean of the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. D.P.S. Chandrakumara said that the selection of papers represents the current trend in multidisciplinary research.

"It seems that the methodologies of researchers have surpassed the boundaries of the positivist scientific paradigm and its integration with interpretive and social critical theory with advanced qualitative and quantitative techniques."

A collection of 188 abstracts by researchers from over 10 countries, including Sri Lanka, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Netherlands, Norway, Czech Republic, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and the United Kingdom will be presented.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Keele, UK and the Research Director, Professor Scott McCracken of Queen Mary University of London, and Professor Rohan Samarajiva, the founding chair of LIRNEasia will be delivering key note addresses.

The Conference Chair is Dr. Chitra Jayathilake of the Department of English and Mr. Senani Harishchandra of the Department of Sinhala and Mass Communication will be acting secretary to the conference.

The proceedings, will be made available on the conference website http://irchss.sjp.ac.lk