In 2011, the Pathfinder Foundation (PF) and Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) of Columbia University initiated a joint Project entitled “Historical Memory as a Tool for Conflict Resolution”, with the objective of engaging scholarly and intellectual participation in the country’s post conflict peace building and reconciliation effort.

The specific task identified by the Project was to get the scholars and intellectuals with different perspectives to work together in collaborative work to produce, through research, public debate and discussion, shared narratives of the conflict which would provide a strong and dependable basis for mutual understanding between the two main protagonists leading to sustainable peace and reconciliation.

Therefore it was decided to conduct a collaborative research project and produce a scholarly volume on the Sri Lanka state as focusing on identities and State-Building with particular attention to the postcolonial state. This collaborative research project resulted in studies independently prepared by the scholars commissioned to do the work. These studies were undertaken by a group of well-known Sri Lankan academics with backgrounds in History, Economics and Sociology most of them currently holding senior academic positions in  Sri Lankan Universities. They are Dr. Gamini Keerawella, Dr. Sisira Pinnawala, Dr. P.V.B. Karunatillaka, Dr. Janaki Jayawardena, Dr.O.G Dayaratna-Banda, Dr. Sathiaseelan and S.A.C. Feroziya.

The Pathfinder Foundation believes that this volume of well researched paper by Sri Lanka’s prominent academics and researchers in their respective fields, in addition to being a useful contribution to post war peace building and reconciliation effort which is its main objective, will be of value to scholars and students interested in history, sociology, ethnic studies, political science and conflict resolution.

The launch at the Peradeniya University is schedule to be held tomorrow from 4:00pm to 5:30pm at the Faculty Seminar Room. This is expected to be attended by academic staff as well as students of the university and other civil society stake holders from the suburbs.