Seminar with Dr Lavanya Sankaram

This paper presents findings from a BA/Leverhulme funded project (September 2024-26) and takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together ethnographic and interactional sociolinguistics and memory studies. It explores how the legacy of the conflict in Sri Lanka is remembered by second generation Sri Lankan Tamils (SLTs) in the diaspora and in the homeland, focusing on the role that communication plays in memory formation processes. The understanding of the war amongst young SLTs in the diaspora is contentious and traumatic, where speaking about the conflict is discouraged. In Sri Lanka, the silences stem from the framing of the Tamil Tigers as terrorists, which has made it difficult for Tamils to publicly talk about or commemorate the loss of their loved ones. 

These issues, therefore, make remembering the conflict challenging for Tamils. Despite this, the research findings show that young Tamils are keen to establish their right to remember a violent past and use various communicative mechanisms to do so. Analysing these mechanisms sheds light on which conflict memories are becoming culturally dominant and/or subordinate. It also provides insight into how communicative practices contribute to and shape the processes of memory culturalization in diaspora and homeland Tamil communities.

This is an online only talk, please email Olivia (olivia.knapton@kcl.ac.uk) for the link.