CRISIS IN SRI LANKA | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

This book provides a broad picture of Sri Lanka’s on-going political and economic crisis as the culmination of several centuries of colonial and neo-colonial developments. The book presents the Sri Lankan crisis as an exemplification of a broader global existential crisis facing more and more debt trapped countries, especially in the post-colonial Global South. The book's in-depth case study raises important questions pertaining to sovereignty and political and economic democracy in Sri Lanka and the world at large. The book also explores the emergence of the crisis in the context of the accelerating geopolitical conflict between China and the USA in the Indian Ocean. 

Moving beyond geopolitical rivalry, the book juxtaposes Sri Lanka’s political-economic crisis with the broader ecological crisis of climate change and sea-level rise. The book concludes with a consideration of the ethical dilemmas behind the debt and survival crisis in Sri Lanka and across the world. It points out a range of social movements and initiatives in Sri Lanka and the Global South which subscribe to collective and ecological alternatives and a Middle Path of sustainability and social justice.

Asoka Bandarage is joining us on the Busboys stage to share a broad presentation of the crisis in Sri Lanka from a colonial and neoliberal point-of-view. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Bandarage will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of CRISIS IN SRI LANKA will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed. 

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Asoka Bandarage has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University. She has served on the faculties of Brandeis University, Georgetown University and Mount Holyoke where she received tenure. Prof. Bandarage is the author of books: Colonialism in Sri Lanka (De Gruyter); Women, Population and Global Crisis (Zed Books); The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka (Routledge); Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy (Palgrave MacMillan) and other publications on political-economy, ecology, ethno-religious conflict as well as mindfulness and social action. Her latest book is Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World: Colonial and Neocolonial Origins: Ecological and Collective Alternatives (De Gruyter, 2023) Dr. Bandarage has written for the Huffington Post and Asia Times, given innumerable lectures and media interviews and serves on the Advisory Boards of Critical Asian Studies, Interfaith Moral Action on Climate and the International Buddhist Association of America. www.bandarage.com

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