01/18/11

Story by Peggy Graham

Sri Lanka Presentations

Scholars focus on Sri Lanka at JCCC

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Johnson County Community College is hosting an academic conference, Sri Lanka: Post Civil War and Post Tsunami, Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 17-19, in the M.R. and Evelyn Hudson Auditorium of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art on the JCCC campus. The conference is free and open to South Asian scholars, the JCCC community and the public.

The panel of scholars includes Dennis McGilvray, professor of anthropology, University of Colorado-Boulder; Patrick Peebles, professor emeritus of history, University of Missouri-Kansas City; and Susan Reed, associate professor of anthropology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa. The topics of their presentations will range from religious identities to the challenges of democracy since independence to the politics of dance.

A PhD in anthropology, McGilvray's most recent scholarship covers issues related to the long civil war in Sri Lanka as well as the impact of the 2004 tsunami that hit the country's East coast in December 2004. A published photographer, his photos of the tsunami devastation will be shown at the opening reception.

Peebles, who has a PhD in history, is a renowned scholar of Sri Lankan history, and his History of Sri Lanka (2006) is widely acclaimed within his field. His research and scholarship provides the historical context by which to understand the more contemporary issues of conflict, natural disaster and recent peace.

Reed is a PhD cultural anthropologist specializing in the study of dance and performance, gender, ethnicity and nationalism, religion and ritual, and South Asia. She lived for several years in Sri Lanka, where she conducted field research on dance, religion and politics. She teaches courses in anthropology, women's and gender studies, and peace studies, and is the director of Bucknell's Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender. She recently published Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual, and Politics in Sri Lanka (2010).

Conference presentations will be:

Thursday, Feb. 17, Hudson Auditorium
6-7 p.m. reception
7-8:30 p.m. photo exhibit of 2004 Sri Lankan tsunami presented by McGilvray

Friday, Feb. 18, Hudson Auditorium
8:30-9 a.m. coffee
9-10:30 a.m. presentation by Peebles, Challenges of Sri Lankan Democracy Since Independence
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. presentation by Reed, Politics of Kandyan Dance
12:30-2 p.m. lunch, room 270 of the Regnier Center, $10 fee
2-3:30 p.m. presentation by McGilvray, Religious Identities in Sri Lanka

Saturday, Feb. 19, Hudson Auditorium
8:30-9:30 a.m. coffee and light breakfast
9:30-11 a.m. McGilvray, Peebles, Reed, discussion on the Future of Sri Lanka: Caste, Ideology, Politics and Religion

The Sri Lanka conference is free except for the lunch, which costs $10. Make lunch reservations at www.jccc.edu/ShopJCCC (conferences).

The Sri Lanka conference is sponsored by JCCC's Scholar-in-Residence program and the Office of International Education. Ed Bushéy, assistant professor, history, proposed and organized the conference. For more information, contact Bushéy using the subject "Sri Lanka."

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