Meet Sri Lankan Researcher — Shashini Gamage
What are you currently working on or worked on before?
My work is primarily set in the fields of cultural studies, media studies, and ethnography with a focus on gender, media, and migration. In short, I am a cultural researcher. Currently, I am working on two research projects at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, affiliated with the Department of Sociology.
One of these projects is called ‘Ageing and New Media. My focus is on how older Sri Lankan migrants use mobile phones, new media, and the Internet to foster close-knit culturally appropriate community support networks when ageing as migrants in Australia.
A second project I am working on is called Healthy Futures where I produce video and community outreach material based on research with Karen migrants of refugee backgrounds from Myanmar.
My higher degree research also focused on researching Sri Lankan migrant women’s popular culture and their lives in Australia and included 18-months of fieldwork with Sri Lankan women’s soap opera clubs in Melbourne and women’s friendship groups in underserved settlements in Colombo. All this research integrates ethnography, video, and photographic documentation methods set in cultural studies.
What encouraged you to pursue your research topic?
My background in Sri Lanka is in journalism and documentary filmmaking. During the civil war, I was fortunate to receive opportunities to work with Young Asia Television and Studio Bonsoir of the Embassy of France. At these organizations, I produced documentaries and videos on women, peace, and culture.
In a way, I have integrated my industry experiences in journalism and filmmaking to inform my approaches in research. Women’s culture and their lives have always been at the centre of my journalistic work, and this continues to be the focus of my research as well.
My documentary work with communities in Sri Lanka, in places like conflict areas in the East, plantation sector in the Central Province, and North Central agricultural communities encouraged me to pursue ethnography — an anthropological method, applied in researching community contexts by immersing in and observing those communities. In Melbourne, I have extended my journalistic experiences of working with communities in Sri Lanka to conducting ethnographic research about the diverse human conditions of the Sri Lankan migrant community.
Where do you find your best inspiration for your work?
I would have to say that it is in feminist ethnography that I find some of the best inspiration for my work. Feminist ethnographers applied a particularly feminist lens and a female gaze to conducting research about women’s lives. Names like Zora Neale Hurston, Hortense Powdermaker, Ruth Behar, Deborah Gordon, Lila Abu-Lughod, Purnima Mankekar come to mind.
In a way, they challenge more rigid and scientific ways of conducting research about women and the male-centric narratives of women’s lives. I think, as a field of research, anthropology owes a lot to these women for setting the course for others like me to challenge the hegemonic ways of doing research with women, and also to decolonize the roots of ethnographic research that is very much entangled in its imperial pasts.
What’s one of your biggest personal achievements so far?
In 2017, I got a small competitive grant from the Australia Awards alumni program to conduct a digital archive and interview platform called Women Talk. For this project, I interviewed 50 Sri Lankan women in diverse fields and published their interviews through a blog and social media. The objective was to create an online space for a Sri Lankan discourse about women’s rights and gender, challenging the absence of women’s voices in the mainstream media.
I am truly grateful to all the inspiring women who participated in that project, and the interviews I conducted with them have been archived for future generations on Women Talk. I would say that this is one of the most inspiring projects I have done, and one of my biggest achievements that integrated both of my passions — media and research.
Can you share with us some of your publications?
Yes. You can find my publications here.
What lessons would you share with a budding researcher?
I am very passionate about encouraging humanities and social science research, especially women in Arts. The Arts are largely ignored as a field of significant research, and areas like gender and cultural studies tend to very easily slip through the cracks.
What I would tell budding researchers though is to embrace the creativity, critical thinking, diversity, and innovation that Arts has to offer to you. Do not be discouraged by the general norms that categorize Arts as unimportant or don’t let the question “What are you going to do with an Arts degree?” hold you back. There are a lot of things you can do and pathways to select, especially in international fields of research.
Another lesson I learned from all this is never to give up. The path to becoming a researcher is a slow and long process. It takes time, and so much patience. There are so many steps and interconnected trajectories that will help you to get there, and so many rejections, falls, failures, and self-doubt as well. There are no shortcuts — for me, it took about 10 years. It is really important to stick to the path and not give up. There were so many times I came close to giving up, but I am really glad I didn’t. Build your networks and collaborations, take all the time you need.
What motivated you to be a researcher?
I think I became a researcher as a result of a course of trajectories that took place in my life. In 2009, shortly after the war, I came to Australia to do my Master’s at La Trobe University. This is the first time I left Sri Lanka to live for a year away from home. While studying for my Master’s, I was exposed to extensive literature and training on media research methods and feminist ethnography.
After I completed my Master’s, I went back to Sri Lanka the following year. This research course inspired me to search for higher degree opportunities. Receiving a prestigious Australia Awards scholarship from the Australian Government to conduct my Ph.D. at La Trobe University in 2011 was a life-changer, and this brought me back to Australia. After completing my Ph.D. in 2016 and going back to Sri Lanka, I came to Australia again in 2019 to conduct early career research. I now live in Melbourne doing research with La Trobe University and conducting sessional teaching at the University of Melbourne.
According to your opinion, what are the changes that the Sri Lankan education system needs to do, in order to meet the requirement of the international industry and academia?
We need to perceive education as something that explores global connections. Moving from teacher-oriented learning to student-oriented learning is something that many countries have explored way before us. It is vital to cultivate critical thinking, innovation, and collaboration in and outside the classroom. This brings me back to my previous thoughts about doing justice to arts education in the curriculum, to develop the arts stream in ways that link it to global industries and academia.
The arts stream should be strengthened on its own, as a significant field of opportunity, and not as a fall-back option for students. We need to move away from our fear of embracing technology and innovation, and moral panics about the global. It is also vital to make education kinder, compassionate, and equal, beyond a curriculum and institution.
