Category Archives: education policy

Peter Mayer: Straddling USA-India-Australia via Academia

Michael Roberts

 The world of university lecturers is quite varied and cannot be easily distilled. My experience is mostly based on my years teaching at Peradeniya University n Sri Lanka (1960-62 & 1966-76) and Adelaide University from 1978-2004—besides exposures to the environments in Oxford, Chicago, Heidelberg & Bielefeldt.

I have decided to introduce my TPS readership to some personnel from this highly-variegated field. My first choice has been an easy one: PETER MAYER is an easy man – personable, talented, multi-skilled and well-travelled. As vitally, he is an American who has married an equally personable lady named “Latha” who is from India.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, education policy, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, Hinduism, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, outmigration, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, religiosity, social justice, teaching profession, terrorism, unusual people, world events & processes

AI Looms Over Our Future …. Look-Out!

ITEM in LUMEN, Adelaide University Magazine, September 2025 or sono date specified clearly & bearing this title: “The  Future and  AI” …. Authorship unclear: maybe Carolyn Semmler, maybe Isaac Freeman

Whether we like it, or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay. The genie is out of the bottle. Its rapid evolution has been embraced by some, and met with raised eyebrows by others.

  In our earlier issue of Lumen this year, we asked readers to describe their hopes and fears for the future. AI was an overwhelmingly present theme.

We shared some of these letters with academics from both the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia to help clarify and respond to concerns on four broad themes: impact on jobs; global security; wellbeing; and the potential for cognitive decline.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, australian media, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, education, education policy, governance, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes

Reading Richard Simon’s THOMIA

Uditha Devapriya, via Thilina Walpola in The Island, 10 August  2025 …………….. Review of “Thomia: The Entangled Histories of Lanka and Her Greatest Public School” by Richard Simon. In 2 volumes. Lazari Press. 869 pages.

Richard Simon’s Thomia is a massive undertaking, though to describe it as such is to indulge in cliches hardly deserving of such books. Where does one begin with a publication like this? It is, as the author notes at the beginning, not just a history of “Lanka’s greatest school”, but a fairly comprehensive and I would say eclectic history of Sri Lanka before and after British rule. The author is at his best when he draws attention to the parallel histories of school and country. Needless to say, he is at his best throughout.

Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, demography, economic processes, education, education policy, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, religiosity, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, world events & processes

Hard Yards in Medical Learning at Colombo University in the 1960s

Dr Nihal D Amerasekera, in The Island, 6 July 2025, …where the title reads  “Going through Colombo Medical School” ... with highlighting emphasis imposed y ThE Editor, Thuppahi

Some real-life experiences:  I am looking at the events of the 20th century with 21st century spectacles. Hence there are no hard feelings or anger except a fervent hope the situation has changed for the better.

My first introduction to the Medical Faculty was on registration day. It started with virtual ‘road blocks’ by seniors to round up the freshers. This was the beginning of the rag to usher in the new recruits and introduce them to a new brand of nastiness, a tradition that has prevailed since the very beginning of the institution.

Photo here  This infamous ritual has become more outrageous with time. This kind of harassment went on for a further fortnight after we joined. What an introduction to a supposed sanctuary of like-minded scholars!! I look back at this behaviour — a set of practices was accepted by many of the staff in the Faculty andeven encouraged by some of them.

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, disparagement, education, education policy, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, teaching profession, trauma, unusual people

THOMIA’s Frontal Pages ….

The hard copy of THOMIA by Richard Simon in two volumes — all 868 + lxv pages of this searching history — is now in print. Presented here are the initial pages.

 

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, education policy, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, politIcal discourse, religiosity, S. Thomas College, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, world events & processes

Launching the Book THOMIA … in Colombo

IN  PICTURES   

     the author speaking ….. and signing books

with Suresh Navaratnam in this  picture


Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, education policy, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people, world events & processes

Nationalisms in Sri Lanka: A Bibliography Cast in 2014..

bull-mascot-team-logo-design-longhorn-133746227 Presented here at ……………………………………………………….. https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/nationalism-the-past-and-the-present-the-case-of-sri-lanka/…. & thus in need of updating.; while being dedicated to a Peradeniya University buddy -alas deceased– with whom I shared notes and thoughts during undergraduate days and thereafter in the 1970s & 1980s in Chicago: namely, Ananda Wickremeratne …

Amunugama, Sarath 1979 ‘Ideology and class interest in one of Piyadasa Siris­ena’s novels: the new image of the “Sinhala Buddhist” nationalist’ in M Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka, Colombo:: Marga Institute, pp 314-36

Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of Nationalism.  London: Verso

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, demography, devolution, discrimination, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education policy, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, hatan kavi, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, patriotism, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, transport and communications, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

Simon’s THOMIA sways Sri Lanka

Rohan Pethiyagoda, reviewing the new book THOMIA written by Richard Simon, in The Island, 16 March 2025

As schools go, St Thomas’s College Mt Lavinia has, since its inception in 1851, had a disproportionate influence on the affairs of Sri Lanka. In ways both good and bad, it created the modern incarnation of this country. After all, four of our first five prime ministers were Thomians (‘Thomian’, by the way, is a Latin diminutive of Thomas, like Tom in English).

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, education policy, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, S. Thomas College, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, teaching profession, unusual people

Offensive Racist Place-Names face Offensive

A News Item in Australia, Today, February 2025

Black Gin Creek and Little Uncle Tom mountain are among the 43 place names in Queensland containing racial slurs with a traumatic history.

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Aboriginality, accountability, anti-racism, Australian culture, australian media, British colonialism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disparagement, education policy, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, unusual people, world events & processes

George Frederick van der Hoeven: A Turbulent Career … Ceylon & Australia

Nick van der Hoeven

I wanted to write about a very complex man, one of my grandfathers …. George Frederick van der Hoeven. The main reason for doing so is because history has not been kind to him, especially the unwritten verbal history within our family. Born in 1901 in Colombo Ceylon — then under British rule — Grandpa (as we called him) died here in Melbourne in 1978. I was 6 years old.

Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, education policy, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes