The concept of displacement: a scholar's personal and academic journey

by Tracie Sweeney

As a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh, Sharika Thiranagama was intrigued by the effects of displacement upon Sri Lankans, a country torn by political and ethnic strife between Tamils and Sinhalese. Since the 1970s, about 64,000 people have died, and more than one million people have been displaced.

Her thesis explored Tamils' concepts of home, belonging, memory, and loss - themes that meshed well with "The Language of Victimization," this year's seminar offered by the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women.

Thiranagama, the Nancy L. Buc Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pembroke Center, has an especially personal connection to her research.

"I am from Sri Lanka, but lived there only as a child," she said.

She was just 10 when her mother, Rajani Thiranagama, was assassinated in 1989 at the age of 35. At first a militant Tamil, Rajani, a physician and a professor, began to rethink her position as politically motivated killings committed by all sides increased. She became one of Sri Lanka's leading human rights activists, a stance some militant Tamils considered traitorous. The murder, committed just yards outside the family's home, forced Thiranagama, her older sister, and their father to flee to London.

From 1990 onward, those found to be traitors in Sri Lanka could be imprisoned, Thiranagama said. "My mother was Tamil, and was considered a traitor. I am part of a traitor's family. I started thinking what it means to be a traitor and a victim."

Returning to Sri Lanka as a graduate student "forced me to question my own identity," she said. "It caused me to question my own understanding of my own home. It became a personal journey."

Such thoughts perhaps informed Thiranagama's performance in No More Tears Sister, a documentary about her mother, who remains a controversial figure. Thiranagama portrays her mother in the critically acclaimed film, which will air on the PBS' P.O.V. June 27.

Portraying her mother (at left) "made her a real and fallible person," Thiranagama said. "She was remarkable and political. She wanted something to happen." During the time of her mother's activism, democratic space was shut down in Sri Lanka. "We view the film as a way to create that public space," Thiranagama said. "It's a personal story, but we don't want it to be just that."

The Pembroke experience has left her with a more interdisciplinary perspective, Thiranagama said. "It has given me new ways to communicate and speak about my interests." On tap: organizing a conference tentatively titled "Treason and the Art of Politics."