60 minutes with Dr Harini Amarasuriya, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

PSIA and the South Asia Programme at CERI are honored to welcome Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Prime Minister of the Sri Lanka. The Prime minister will be engaged in a conversation by Christophe Jaffrelot, Scientific Director of the South Asia Programme, before responding to questions from the audience.

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya was sworn in as the 17th Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on 18 November 2024. She also serves as the Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education.

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya's multifaceted career spans academia, social activism and grassroots politics, with a focus on youth issues, human rights and social development. For the past decade, she served as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University of Sri Lanka. As a researcher, she has published treatises on elite politics, dissent, social justice, discrimination and youth, female-headed families, and child labor. In 2016, she also served as a member of the People’s Representative Committee on Constitutional Reforms of Sri Lanka.

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. She has also served on several boards related to community health, women's research, and legal advocacy.

This conversation will be chaired by Christophe Jaffrelot, who is a permanent faculty member of Sciences Po and and Director of Research at CERI-SciencesPo/CNRS.