Reflecting on Geography higher education in Sri Lanka: Unpacking/releasing the hegemonic burden…

Abstract

This commentary explores the nature and the challenges in Geography Higher Education in Sri Lanka. It discusses how geographical thinking is undermined through sub‐disciplinary fragmentation and the hegemonic grip of Anglophone Geography, which allows less space for Sri Lanka’s own Geography. It urges for the need to unpack and release the hegemonic burden, paving way towards a “decolonial praxis” aimed at a Sri Lankanised Geography.

We just gotta do meta! Notes on disciplinary anxieties in Geography in India

“…This vertical division makes it impossible for the discipline to carry out coherent research in a single location without resolving itself into two distinct bodies of knowledge -physical and human. This particular issue of conservativeness in Indian geography is flagged by many (Schwartzberg, 1983;Singh, 2009), and this tension also persists in the curriculum of university geography in several other countries of global south like Sri Lanka or the Philippines (Hennayake, 2022;Saguin et al, 2022), and even in Australia and China (Head & Rutherfurd, 2022;Qian & Zhang, 2022), as evident from the other themed issues in this collection. It is also true that the questions regarding the nature of discipline and disciplinary boundaries are more frequently faced by the geographers than any other discipline (Singh, 2009); and seeing the emerging nature of geography it is necessary to continuously rethink the concepts and definitions used in geographical matters (Raju, 2004).…”

Rebuilding Geography for the 21st century through disciplinary reunification and social engagement

“…Third, despite the continuous restructuring of Anglophone Geography departments, we must also pay attention to the uneven and varied development of Geography in different social contexts. In a recent themed intervention in the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , geographers based in Australia, China, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the Philippines reported the state of Geography in these countries (see Head and Rutherfurd, 2021; Hennayake, 2021; Qian and Zhang, 2021; Saguin et al, 2021). Specifically, in Australia, Geography has been affected by precarious and recurrent departmental restructuring; in China, geographers yet share varied focuses from Anglophone academia, in terms of theoretical and methodological paradigms as for practical application and/or critical and reflexive knowledge production and transmission; in the Philippines, the development of Geography turned to be constrained in the country’s higher education system; in Sri Lanka, however, Geography’s sub-disciplinary fragmentation and the significance of Anglophone Geography are outstanding, flagging a ‘decolonial praxis’ to refocus on the country’s own geography – as well as on Africa’s too.…”

Dislocating Urban Theory: Learning with Food‐Vending Practices in Colombo and Delhi

“…Thus, it becomes pertinent to understand the process of what is sought and therefore what becomes knowledge, or as Nigam (2020:19) has put it, “Who determines what the agenda of the day for theory will be?”. This process of determining the “agenda” has been argued to be harmful, both in the global North (Connell 1997) and the global South (Hennayake 2021). Furthermore, my understanding of informality is knowledge (I publish in academic journals and my livelihood comes out of this knowledge), while it is of no interest for Mishra who operates informally (at least as I categorise informality).…”