Testimonies for Gender Justice

The ANU Gender Institute is hosting a team of academics and artists from the Gender, Justice and Security Hub, in which ANU is a partner, for a series of events exploring the development of arts-based methods for feminist research in conflict sites.

The events on 8 and 9 August include a full-day workshop, a panel discussion on the Sri Lankan conflict and its gendered impacts, two film showings, a public lecture on art and resistance, and a film-making masterclass.

Program

8th August, NFSA:

9.30am - 5pm Workshop: ‘Using Arts-based Methods for Feminist Research in Precarious Contexts’, facilitated by Neloufer de Mel, Ruhanie Perera and Kamala Vasuki

5.30pm – 6pm Video Installation ‘Now You Must Bear Witness’ and drinks reception

6-7pm Panel Discussion ‘Gender, Justice and Security in Sri Lanka’s Conflict Zones’

7-9pm Film Screening & Director’s Q&A Paangshu

9th August, NFSA & ANU:

9.30am – 12.30pm Masterclass: ‘The Cinematic Interpretation of Trauma: Film Making in Conflict Zones’, facilitated by Dr Visakesa Chandrasekaram

12.30-2pm Public Lecture – Professor Neloufer de Mel: ‘Spaces of Resistance: Public Art and Cultural Life during the Aragalaya’.

5.30pm – 6pm Video Installation ‘Now You Must Bear Witness’

6-8.15pm Film Screening & Director’s Q&A Munnel

Registration for Video Installation, Film Showings and Public Lecture: https://tinyurl.com/2mbdvscn

EoI for Workshop and Masterclass: https://tinyurl.com/2edwd4ju

Speakers:

Visakesa Chandrasekaram is a lawyer, artist and researcher, based in the Department of Public & International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. He has made three feature films: ‘Sayapethi Kusuma’ (Frangipani) which won the Best International Film Award in 2015 Rio LGBT Film Festival; ‘Paangshu’ (Earth) which won the Jury Award of 2019 Religions Today Film Festival, and ‘Munnel’ (Sand) which won 2023 Tiger Jury Award at International Film Festival of Rotterdam. He has also made a documentary titled ‘Payanam’ (Journey) which was premiered in 2024 Sheffield Documentary Film Festival. Visakesa has worked in Sri Lanka as a human rights lawyer and in Australia as a consultant to the NSW Government. He has received a doctorate from the Australian National University for his research on the use of confessionary evidence under counter-terrorism laws. He is a Creative Fellow at Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre and ANU Humanities Research Centre.

Neloufer de Mel was former Chair Professor of English, Dept. of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a Co-Director of the GCRF Gender Justice and Security Research Hub. The author of Militarizing Sri Lanka: Popular Culture, Memory and Narrative in the Armed Conflict (Sage, 2007) and Women and the Nation’s Narrative: Gender and Nationalism in 20th Century Sri Lanka (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), her recent journal publications and edited volumes have been on post-war Sri Lanka, providing feminist, postcolonial and cultural studies perspectives on questions of armed conflict, gender, justice, and performance. Amongst her co-edited volumes are Reframing Democracy: Perspectives on the Cultures of Inclusion and Exclusion in Sri Lanka (SSA, 2012), and In the Shadow of Transitional Justice: Cross-National Perspectives on the Transformative Potential of Remembrance (Routledge, 2021). She has held several distinguished research fellowships at international universities and academic institutes including Yale, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and the Universities of Zurich and New York.

Ranitha Gnanarajah is an Attorney at Law and the Head of the Legal Department of the Center for Human Rights and Development, Sri Lanka. Her legal career began as an Attorney at Law at the Home for Human Rights (HHR) in 2006. Over the years, she has forged partnerships with Sri Lankan women’s groups to advocate against violence against women and conflict-related harms including sexual violence. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to work on human rights, Ranitha was honoured with the “International Women of Courage” award by the U.S. State Department in 2021.

Ruhanie Perera is a theatre performer and lecturer at the Dept. of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is a founding member of the Floating Space Theatre Company. “Inscribing Her” (2013) and “Somewhere Between Truth and its Telling” (2012) are two of her solo performances that reflect her preoccupation with the body, embodiment, and the lived experience of women. She worked as a theatre consultant on the “Narrating (In)Securities” applied theatre project of the GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Research Hub.

Kamala Vasuki (Vasuki Jeyasankar) is a feminist activist, artist and poet from the north and east of Sri Lanka who works on the rights of women, children and indigenous people in the conflict affected areas of Sri Lanka. As an artist she combines her interest and talent in creative arts with her passion and commitment to issues of gender, human rights and social justice. She also works to foreground the voices of women affected by war and violence through various art forms. She is currently engaged in collectively creating artworks on memorialisation.