sanjanah@cpalanka.org
Schooled at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, Sanjana read English at the University of Delhi, India and as a Rotary World Peace Fellow, was awarded an Advanced Masters in Conflict Resolution and International Relations from the University of Queensland, Brisbane with a Dean’s Commendation for High Achievement.
He is currently a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, and oversees the work of the Centre’s Media Unit. Since 2006, Sanjana is a Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. Through the Foundation, Sanjana works to further the use of ICTs in crisis information management and peacekeeping initiatives at the United Nations. As a Fellow of the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Sanjana has contributed to the praxis of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), focusing on how web and mobile technologies can strengthen ethno-political conflict transformation.
Sanjana is the founding editor and sole curator of Groundviews, an award-winning web based civic media initiative based in Sri Lanka. He contributes regularly to and is quoted widely in leading local and international media and academic publications.
In 2011, Sanjana was the first Sri Lankan to be awarded a TED Fellowship, two years after he was awarded a News & Knowledge Entrepreneur Fellowship from the Ashoka Foundation. Both awards recognise pioneering efforts to leverage web based citizen journalism and new media to bear witness to violence and strengthen democracy, human rights and a just peace.
An experienced trainer in local and international fora for over 12 years, Sanjana is widely recognised as a pioneering voice in the design and implementation of ICTs and new media eco-systems in peacebuilding, online dispute resolution, conflict transformation and crisis response.