Isurinie Mallawaarachchi
Isurinie Anuradha Mallawaarachchi (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the School of Law, Society, and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Justice. Her project seeks to research street harassment in public spaces in Sri Lanka.
Isurinie is a published poet. Her first collection of poetry, Flowers Teach Me to Let Go (2022) was shortlisted for Gratiaen Prize in 2023. Her second collection of poetry, My Mind is a Light Switch (2023) was also nominated for State Literary Award in Sri Lanka for best collection of poetry in English in 2024. Prior to commencing her PhD, she worked as a lecturer in Sri Lanka.
Research topic
Women's Experiences of Street Harassment in Sri Lanka: An Exploration of Conceptual and Methodological Approaches
Isurinie intends to view her work alongside three main provocations: First, to view the public spaces (i.e. streets) as gendered where there is a clear gendered hierarchy. Second, to explore, question, and challenge the existing Global North frameworks for understanding street harassment by asking to what extent those frameworks are relevant or meaningful to Sri Lankan contexts. Third, to use autoethnography and poetic inquiry in the methods to develop knowledge on prevention and intervention which is subjective and culturally situated. In working on her project, she is deeply inspired by decolonial frameworks on centring subjective, lived experience-led knowledge.
Supervisors
Dr Andy Kaladelfos, Dr Roanna Gonsalves
Areas of interest
gender-based violence, street harassment, creative methods, victimology
- Publications and presentations
- Creative writing
Mallawaarachchi, I. A. (2024) A small-scale study on gender-based violence in public transport in Sri Lanka. Journal of Management, Social Sciences and Humanities, 2024, Vol. 05, Issue 01, 45鈥72. DOI:
Books
Mallawaarachchi, I. A. (2022). Flowers Teach Me to Let Go. Colombo: Jam Fruit Tree Publications. ISBN: 978-624-5702-67-1.
Mallawaarachchi, I. A. (2023). My Mind is a Light Switch. Colombo: Jam Fruit Tree Publications. ISBN: 978-624-6343-39-2.
Contributions to creative journals and anthologies
Mallawaarachchi, I. A. (2025). 鈥淲hat does it mean to have a queer best friend?鈥, 鈥淭o the American Suddi鈥, 鈥淭he Monster鈥. In K. Ali (Ed). On the Brink of Belief. Penguin Random House India.
Mallawaarachchi, I. A. (2025) 鈥淗ome鈥, 鈥淔eelings鈥. The Jam Fruit Tree Anthology of Best Poetry 2025. Colombo: Jam Fruit Tree Publishers.
Mallawaarachchi, I. A. (2024). 鈥淎mma鈥. Southern Humanities Review. 57(4).