Sujit Sivasundaram
Sujit Sivasundaram is a British Sri Lankan historian and academic. He is currently professor of world history at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge.
Sujit Sivasundaram | |
---|---|
Born | Marawila, Sri Lanka |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
Early life
Sivasundaram was born in Sri Lanka.[1] He is the great grand son of Lawrie Muthu Krishna, editor of the Ceylonese newspaper and founder of The Polytechnic vocational school.[2][3] He is the grandson of Mano Muthu Krishna-Candappa, journalist and advocate for women's advancement in Sri Lanka.[4][5] The Muthukrishnas were a leading family amongst Colombo's Chetty community.[6][7]
Sivasundaram was educated at S. Thomas' Preparatory School (in the Sinhala medium) and Colombo International School.[1][2] Sivasundaram says he hated studying history at school given how it was taught as social studies.[2] After school he joined the University of Cambridge on a scholarship in 1994 to study engineering but later switched to history and graduated in 1997 with a BA degree.[1][2][8] He also has MPhil (1998) and PhD (2001) degrees from Cambridge.[8]
Career
Sivasundaram joined Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 2001 as a research fellow before becoming a lecturer.[2][9] He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and a visiting senior research fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore and the University of Sydney.[1] He taught south Asian and imperial history at the London School of Economics between 2008 and 2010.[10][11] Between 2015 and 2017 he was Sackler Caird Fellow at the National Maritime Museum.[1][8] He was director of the Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge and director of graduate studies at the Faculty of History, Cambridge.[1] He is currently a fellow and professor of world history at Gonville and Caius College.[1] He supervises MPhil and PhD students of world and imperial history.[1]
Sivasundaram was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for medieval, early modern and modern history in 2012.[1][8][12] He is a fellow and council member of the Royal Historical Society (RHS).[1][8][13] He delivered the 2019 RHS Prothero Lecture.[1][14] He is co-editor of The Historical Journal and was associate editor of the Journal of British Studies.[1][8] He is on the editorial boards of History Australia, The International History Review and Medical History.[1]
Works
Sivasundaram has written numerous books and articles including:
- Nature and the Godly Empire: Science and Evangelical Mission in the Pacific, 1795-1850 (2005, Cambridge University Press; ISBN 9780521188883, 0521188881, 9780521848367, 0521848369)[1][8]
- Science, Race and Imperialism ed. with Marwa Elshakry in Victorian Science and Literature, Vol 6, eds. Bernard Lightman and Gowan Dawson (2012, Pickering & Chatto Publishers; ISBN 9781848930926, 1848930925)[1][8]
- Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony (2013, University of Chicago Press; 2014, Oxford University Press, Delhi; ISBN 9780198096245, 0198096240)[1][8]
- Oceanic Histories ed. with David Armitage and Alison Bashford (2017, Cambridge University Press; ISBN 9781108423182, 1108423183, 9781108434829, 1108434827)
- Waves Across the South (2020, Harper Collins)[1]
- 'Materialities in the Making of World Histories: South Asia and the South Pacific' in Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture: World Perspectives ed. by Ivan Gaskell and Sarah Carter[1]
References
- "Professor Sujit Sivasundaram". Cambridge, U.K.: Faculty of History, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- Sadanandan, Renuka (8 May 2016). "Framing an island". The Sunday Times. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- Sivasundaram, Sujit (19 January 2002). "Still thriving at hundred". The Island. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Tackling Key Questions". The Sunday Times. Colombo, Sri Lanka. 20 December 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- Karunaratne, Ilica Malkanthi (1 October 2017). "Mano Muthukrishna Candappa: A pioneer in many avenues". Sunday Observer. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
- Abayasekara, Anne (8 July 2001). "Carving a niche with a distinct contribution". The Sunday Times. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- Crusz, Noel (6 January 2002). "The 'Poly' doors opened and in came the girls". The Sunday Times. Colombo, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Professor Sujit Sivasundaram". Cambridge, U.K.: Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Caius Fellow leads vibrant Centre of South Asian Studies". Cambridge, U.K.: Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 19 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Dr Sujit Sivasundaram". Cambridge, U.K.: Consortium for the Global South, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Sujit Sivasundaram". London, U.K.: David Higham Associates. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2012". London, U.K.: Leverhulme Trust. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Council: Dr Sujit Sivasundaram". London, U.K.: Royal Historical Society. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Caius Historian Gives Prothero Lecture". Cambridge, U.K: Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.