Dr Chamindra Weerawardhana

Personal statement:

My discipline is international politics, with a dual specialization in comparative conflict research and nontraditional (especially decolonial feminist) approaches to international relations. My 2018 book Decolonising Peacebuilding explores the decolonial politics of conflict management in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka. This body of work, based on my doctoral work, focuses on what I term  ‘reverse area studies’ – the case of a scholar from a global majority (in my case Sri Lankan) background conducting in-depth research in a sociopolitical context in the global north. This involves challenging the usual practice of scholars from the global north with considerable racial, passport, financial and gender-related privileges studying sociopolitical contexts in the global majority. I have also published on gender-related challenges in politics of the left in both Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka. In the sphere of international relations, my work has sought to dismantle the cis-heteronormative and global north-centric walls of the discipline, developing critical decolonial feminist approaches. Current work also includes a decolonial feminist critique, if not reappraisal of the UN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda. My ongoing work in decolonial feminist theory and praxis is informed by hands-on engagements with indigenous justice initiatives in several locations, including Aotearoa, Turtle Island, several locations in the Indian Subcontinent and West Africa. My second book, Feminism in the Age of Fascism: A Decolonial Feminist Manifesta for Radical Resistance is currently in contract with Fernwood Publishing. I am a commissioner at the LANCET Commission on racism, structural discrimination and global health, where my work focuses on decolonial feminist approaches to global health, exploring solutions and innovations developed in indigenous communities. I am a somatic spirituality practitioner, with a research-and-practitioner interest in amalgamating conflict transformation, decolonial feminist worldmaking and feminist approaches to spirituality in my overall work. I have held teaching and research assignments in several institutions, including Université Paris 13, Université Lille 1, Queen’s University Belfast, University College Dublin and the University of Victoria. I am also a political analyst, and my analytical and journalistic work has appeared in the Sri Lankan and international press. I am a TEDx speaker, and I regularly guest lecture on topics related to decolonial and anticolonial feminism, critical feminist approaches to conflict transformation and social justice. I am the co-founder of the Consortium for Intersectional Justice, an international expert body that works on two core thematic areas – the promotion of democracy and business and human rights. Outside the academic sphere, I have worked extensively in international human rights advocacy, in the areas of conflict resolution and bodily autonomy-related human rights.

Collaboration opportunities:

I am interested collaborations that require a decolonial feminist outlook/specialization, in a range of sectors, from climate justice to conflict transformation. I am a TEDx speaker and a public speaker with some 16 years of experience. I am an international consultant with 13 years of experience, having worked with policymakers, diplomats, political parties and corporate sector partners in several countries. I am available for specialist consulting on inclusive public policy, incorporating feminist frameworks, constructive conflict resolution and mediation, DEI, feminist and decolonial approaches to global and public health, and guest lecturing/teaching. I work in both English and French.

Publications:

Achilleos-Sarll, C., (she/her), Kirby, P., (he/him), Naraghi-Anderlini, S., (she/her), Thuy Seelinger, K., (she/her), Grimes, R., (she/her), Weerawardhana, C., (she/her), … McLeod, L., (she/her). (2025). Unhappy birthday! Women, Peace and Security at 25. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2025.2600069.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra. 2025. Decolonial Theory in International Relations. In, Roberts, L. (ed) SAGE International Encyclopaedia on Politics and Gender. New York: SAGE.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra. 2024. Towards an Agenda for Feministing Political Science: Intersectional Feminist Pathways, in A. Cattapan, E. Tungohan, N. Nath, F. MacDonald and S Patterson [EDs] Feministing in Political Science. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.

​Weerawardhana, Chamindra. 2021. Beyond the Pride Parade: An Intersectional Feminist Perspective on SOGIESC Futures in South Asia. ​

Weerawardhana, Chamindra. 2020. “Erasure at the ‘Tipping Point’? Transfeminist Politics and Challenges for Representation: From Turtle Island to the Global South/s.”, in, Fiona MacDonald and Alexandra Dobrowolsky [Eds] Turbulent Times: Transformational Possibilities? Gender and Politics Today and Tomorrow. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 304-325.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra. 2019. « Épistémologies et activismes transféministes : pour ne plus être à la marge » In, Arnaud Alessandrin [Ed], Actualité des trans studies. Paris : Éditions des archives contemporaines.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra. 2018. Decolonising Peacebuilding : Managing Conflict from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka and Beyond. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars [ISBN-13: 978-1-5275-1146-0].

Weerawardhana, C. 2019. ‘Kate Osamor MP’, in, Jacqui Smith and Iain Dale [Eds], The Honourable Ladies: Profiles of Women MPs, Vol. III. London: Biteback Publishing.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra, 2018. « Mot d’ouverture: vers une réappropriation des narrations». Introductory text of Minorités Lisibles : Revue des enjeux féministes, de genres et de sexualités à l’Université de Montréal. No. 3, December 2018.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra. 2018. ‘A Transfeminist perspective on development work’. In, Corinne L. Mason [Ed] Routledge Handbook on Development Studies, 119-130.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra, 2018. ‘Profoundly Decolonising? Reflections on a Transfeminist Perspective of International Relations’. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. 18:1, 184-213.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra, 2018. ‘What is it about “fuck off” you don’t understand?’ The NILRC and politics of the Left in Northern Ireland, Labor History, DOI: 10.1080/0023656X.2018.1467300 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0023656X.2018.1467300].

Weerawardhana, Chamindra, 2017. Gender and ethnic politics in Sri Lanka’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Socialism and Democracy, 31:2, 73-94.

Weerawardhana, Chamindra, 2017. Paradigms of [in]tolerance? On Sri Lanka’s Bodu Bala Sena, #prezpollsl2015, and transformative dynamics of lived religion’ in Ganzevoort, R. and S. Sremac, (Eds) Lived Religion and the politics of (in)tolerance. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp 19-39.

Weerawardhana, C., and Siriwardane, R. 2015. ‘Reis Mafia in Colombo: Wahlkampf um das Präsidentenamt’. Südasien, 35 (1), Spring 2015, pp. 91-97.

Weerawardhana, C. 2015, ‘Economic reform, Infrastructure development and bridge-building? Terence O’Neill, J.R. Jayewardene and managing conflict in deeply divided societies’. Working paper, Institute for Conflict Transformation and Social Justice, Queen’s University Belfast.

Weerawardhana, C. 2013, From Ottawa to Colombo: Conceptualising Canada’s international role at the hour of Eastphalia” Revue française d’études canadiennes, Vol. 75, December 2013, pp. 97-127.