Chandani Liyanage

I am a Sri Lankan Medical Sociologist and currently serving as a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. I am a Senior Researcher and lead several interdisciplinary research teams funded by national and international organizations including WHO, UNICEF, Child Fund and the Ministry of Health and Law and Society Trust in Sri Lanka. My academic background spans sociology, anthropology, disability studies and social policy and social development. 

I obtained my Bachler’s Degree and the Masters’ Degree from the University of Colombo and I completed my PhD in 2007 from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, India. I received a Fulbright Advanced Research & Lecturing Award in 2011/2012 and was affiliated to the Center for South Asian Studies at Syracuse University. I served as a Visiting Faculty at Ljubljana University, Slovenia (2013) and received a fellowship for Professionals-on Demand for Disability Rights in USA (2015).  I was the founding director of the Center for Disability Research, Education and Practice (CEDREP) (2014 - 2018), University of Colombo; Chairperson of the Ethics Review Committee for Social Sciences and Humanities (ERCSSH- 2015-2021) and a member of the Ethics Review Committees of the Faculties of Medicine and Indigenous Medicine, University of Colombo (2015 – 2022). 

I have published in reputed journals and contributed to publications including ‘Socio-cultural construction of disability’, ‘A Paradigm for Well-Being: Social Construction of Health’ and ‘Social epidemiology of Chronic Kidney Disease of uncertain etiology in Sri Lanka and socio-cultural factors that associated with childhood vaccine hesitancy among social groups in Sri Lanka. I involved in a multidisciplinary research on ‘Empowering Cutaneous Leishmaniasis patients (ECLIPSE) funded by NIHR with the collaboration of diverse academic experts on medical anthropology and medicine from UK, Brazil, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

Email: chandaniliyanage@soc.cmb.ac.lk

Affiliation: University of Colombo, Sri Lanka