Mythri Jegathesan Recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences
Public Intellectual Award
In recognition of the effective, far-reaching, and timely use of scholarly expertise to address issues of major public concern in a way that promotes reasoned analysis and humane understanding.
If you know Mythri, you know that she applies the same rigor to publicly addressing political unrest in Sri Lanka where her research takes place as she does to her teaching and research. Not only did her first book, “Tea and Solidarity,” win two major awards while being taught in many classes across the country, she is working with publishers on an East Asian edition. She uses her knowledge to address the many different public spheres about labor inequalities in Sri Lankan tea plantations, the recent economic and political crises in Sri Lanka, and how caste influences labor and power in Sri Lanka. In 2019, Mythri wrote about the 2019 Easter bombings for CNN. She participates regularly in the South Asia Labor Scholars Network, and has written pro-bono expert reports for asylum seekers. In addition to CNN, Mythri has been featured in Variety, NBC, and Inter Press, and in Sri Lanka, The Daily Mirror and Virakesari newspapers.
Mythri and her co-author have drawn on Sri Lankan political history to urge politicians to listen to multiple communities in their attempts to curtail violence. Just this past August, Mythri was interviewed by The Real News Network for an in-depth series on Sri-Lanka’s 30-year civil war and its effect on today's political crisis. She is active on social media, where she educates us all about the livelihoods and suffering of individuals surviving a very different reality than we could ever imagine. Join her thousands of followers and take a stroll through her twitter feed or read her public articles and learn more about her approach. In addition to her social media presence, Mythri also makes numerous presentations in person.
As one of her colleagues notes: “If we were all like Mythri, academia would have a much better reputation.”
For her eloquent, forceful engagement with critical issues of our time, Dr. Mythri Jegathesan is an inspiring, deserving recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Public Intellectual Award.