Jayasinghe and Alkinani Awarded 2018-2019 CLCS PROGRAM DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP AWARD
Hashintha Jayasinghe and Ghyath Manhel Alkinani, both Comparative Literature & Cultural Studies (CLCS) students in the Department of World Languages, have received the 2018-2019 CLCS Program Dissertation Fellowship Award.
The award is used to support doctoral students in the final stage of their program. Each year, the CLCS program seeks nominations for two $5,000 dissertation writing fellowships for CLCS students who are ABD (all but dissertation) by the fellowship application deadline and who would commit to finish the dissertation during the 2018-2019 academic year.
Jayasinghe’s dissertation titled "Archive and Repertoire of the Asala Perahera Performance in Sri Lanka" focuses on the archive and the repertoire of the Perahera performance in Sri Lanka.
The archival records consider the history of the performance, the meanings associated with the Esala Perahera, and certain changes that have taken place, whereas, the repertoire looks at the non-archival transmission of history and memory that is preserved through the live performance of the Esala Perahera.
Overall, the project re-examines the formation of identities, narratives, and histories transmitted through cultural performance.
Jayasinghe has done extensive research on this performance during her summer vacations in 2016 and 2017. She is the first to study this performance through a postcolonial and performance studies theoretical lens.
Alkinani studied English (BA 2006) and English literature (MA 2010) at the University of Baghdad, Iraq.
He has served as a teaching assistant at the University of Kufa, Iraq and won a doctoral scholarship from Higher Committee For Education Development.
Alkinani’s dissertation project engages Iraqi and American literary representations of the Iraq War, with a focus on the discourse of trauma.
His research interests include cultural studies, comparative literature, contemporary fiction and poetry.
