Profile – Dr. Harini Amarasuriya

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya was born on 6th March 1970 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her multifaceted career spans academia, social activism and grassroots politics, with a focus on youth issues, human rights and social development. She is currently serving the country as a prominent Sri Lankan scholar, social activist and politician.

For the past decade, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya served as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University of Sri Lanka. In addition to her teaching responsibilities and the revision of the Sociology curriculum, she was actively involved in administrative leadership roles at the university and has also served as a member of the University Grants Commission’s Standing Committee on Gender Equality and Social Equity since 2016. She served as Secretary of the Open University Teachers’ Association (2012 and 2013) and Assistant Secretary (2014 and 2015) and Secretary (2016) of the University Teachers’ Association, where she campaigned for increased allocations for education in the national budget.

As a researcher, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya has published treatises on elite politics, dissent, social justice, discrimination and youth, female-headed families, child labor, institutionalized child care, early marriage, well-being, educational research and intellectual property. In 2014, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya was the lead author of the National Human Development Report for Sri Lanka and also participated in drafting the National Youth Policy of Sri Lanka that year. In 2016, she also served as a member of the People’s Representative Committee (PRC) on Constitutional Reforms of Sri Lanka.

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya received her basic education from Bishop’s College, Colombo and pursued higher education in several foreign countries. She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Delhi and a MA in Applied Anthropology and Development Studies from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. For that degree, she conducted a research thesis on female migrant workers. In 2011, she wrote her PhD thesis on child protection in Sri Lanka and received PhDs in Social Anthropology and International Health and Development from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University.

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya has served for many years as a board member of NEST, a Sri Lankan community health organization; the Center for Women’s Research (CENWOR), an organization engaged in research on women’s and gender issues in Sri Lanka; and the Law & Society Trust, an organization engaged in legal research, advocacy, and human rights documentation in Sri Lanka.