About the Conference
Volunteers
- Academic Organizers: Chelva Kanaganayakam, R. Cheran, and Darshan Ambalavanar
- Conference Organizing Committee: Darshan Ambalavanar, Zainab Basheer, R. Cheran, Sudharshan Durayappah, Shanker Kamalanathan, Chelva Kanaganayakam, Geetha Shanmugalingam, Prashad Sivahurunathan, Gowry Sivapathasundaram, Shoba Subramaniam, Sathya Thillainathan, and Neerajah Vignarajah
- Community Outreach: Prashad Sivahurunathan and Stefvania Sritharan
- Event Planning: Geetha Sanmugalingam and Sivajini Sivasamy
- Graphic Design: Fathima Cader
- Media: Gowry Sivapathasundaram and Shiyamali Paranirupasingham
- Printing: Shanker Kamalanathan
- Publicity: Sathya Thillainathan and Prashad Sivahurunathan
- Registration: Zainab Basheer and Neerajah Vignarajah
- Volunteer Coordination: Sudharshan Durayappah and Shoba Subramaniam
- Website: Infinitom e-Marketing Solutions
- General Volunteers: Goji Anandarajah, Lojana Anandarajah, Kavita Bala, Seiji Fujiwara, Rajithan Ithayalingam, Jalajah Jokarasa, Rupina Kavasji, Clayton Lewis, Richard Qin Liu, Kajeevan Manoharan, Swetha Muralidhara, Rotbah Nitia, Dalene Pillai, Kuruparan Selvarajah, Ananthan Sinnadurai, Madura Siva, Sathya Sivahurunathan, Manoja Sivajothy, Sivajini Sivasamy, Chelvan Sivayogapathy, Pavithrah Tharmaseelan, Priya Thasan, and Aaraniyan Vivekanandan.
Coordinating Committee
- Darshan Ambalavanar
Darshan is a visiting fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto. He recently completed his Ph.D. dissertation in the Study of Religion at Harvard University, titled "Arumuga Navalar and the Construction of a Saiva Public in Colonial Jaffna". His interests are colonial history of South Asia, religious movements and nationalism.
- Zainab Basheer
Zainab is currently completing her Masters in Education at York University.
- R. Cheran
Cheran is an Assistant Professor of Anthopology and Sociology at the University of Windsor. His research and teaching interests include transnationalism, forced migration and diasporic identities as well as Tamil Studies. From 1984 to 1992, Dr. Cheran was a working journalist in Sri Lanka where he was the editor and regular columnist for a biweekly newspaper that focused on human rights reporting in the context of Sri Lanka’s civil war. He has published seven anthologies of poetry in Tamil. His poems have been translated into English, German, Sinhala, Kannada and Malayalam. He is the co-editor of Thamil ini (Kalachuvadu: 2000), selected papers from the international Tamil studies and Tamil literary conference held in Chennai, India in 2000.
- Sudharshan Durayappah
Sudharshan teaches at the University of Toronto, Scarborough and the Royal Ontario Museum. His research interests include Hinduism in the Diaspora, Trans Asian Religious routes of the 7-9 th century A.D. and Iconography.
- Chelva Kanaganayakam
Chelva is a Professor of English at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in Southeast Asian literature, contemporary Indian and Sri Lankan writing, literature of exile and postcolonial theory. His major publications include Moveable Margins: The Shifting Spaces of Canadian Literature (2005), Counterrealism and Ingo Anglian Fiction (2002); Lutesong and Lament: Tamil Writing from Sri Lanka (2001); Dark Antonyms and Paradise: The Poetry of Rienzi Crusz (1997); Configurations of Exile: South Asian Writers and Their World (1995), and Structures of Negation: The Writings of Zulfikar Ghose (1993).
- Geetha Shanmugalingam
Geetha has completed a degree in Biological Chemistry at the University of Toronto and is currently in her first year of a degree in Health Administration at Ryerson University. She is working in Transplant Research at Toronto General Hospital. She hopes to pursue research interests in gender and ethnicity issues in healthcare.
- Prashad Sivahurunathan
Prashad has completed his Bachelor's degree in Engineering.
- Gowry Sivapathasundaram
Gowry recently completed her Masters in Political Science (International Relations) from York University, with a dissertation on "Theorizing the Refugee Body".
- Shoba Subramaniam
Shoba has completed a degree in Biological Chemistry at the University of Toronto and is currently in her first year of a degree in Health Administration at Ryerson University. She is a student researcher at Toronto General Hospital.
- Sathya Thillainathan
Sathya is pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Sociology at the University of Toronto.
- Neerajah Vignarajah
Neerajah is completing her Bachelor's degree in Life Science at McMaster University.