The 7th International Research Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura was successfully held as a hybrid event on 18th and 19th March 2021.
The Inauguration Ceremony of the conference was held on 18th March 2021 with the participation of the chief guess; Ms. Alaina B. Teplitz; the US ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Senior Professor Sampath Amaratunge; the Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Snr. Prof. Sudhantha Liyanage; Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Shirantha Heenkenda; Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Mr. A. B. Waliita; Registrar of the University. In addition prestigious guests including deans of other faculties of the university, heads of departments, invitees and prominent academics participated in the inauguration ceremony.
This years IRCHSS included three plenary speeches, organized with the goal of generating an interactive discourse on some key topics in contemporary humanities and social sciences. The first plenary was delivered by Professor Praneeth Abhayasundere of the Department of Anthropology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura on “Anthropomorphism and Zoomorphism: Resolving the Praxis.” Meanwhile, the second plenary was delivered by Dr. Oshan Wedage, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Archelogy of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura along with Dr. Siran Deraniyagala, Professor M.M. Pathmalal and a team of researchers from Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Germany on “Fruits Of The Forest: Sri Lanka and Its Global Prehistory.” Finally, the third plenary was delivered by Professor Daniel Seely of the Eastern Michigan University, USA, on “Toward Explaining Language: The Minimalist Perspective.”
IRCHSS is one of the most prestigious conferences organized in Sri Lanka in the fields of humanities and social sciences. This year’s conference was taken place in a real-time [Online] knowledge exchange platform under the theme, “Collaborate and Discover: Break the Barriers.” More than 100 research presentations were presented though the two conference dats under 08 conference tracks, including Buddhist Studies, Religion, and Philosophy; Communication, Media and Society; Environment, Governance and Development; History, Culture and Heritage; Language and Literature; and Technology, Innovation, and Education.
