Professor Emeritus Gamini Keerawella is an internationally renowned research scholar, the former Head,Department of History, the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. 

Prof. Keerawella earned his Ph.D.in Historyfrom the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canadaand his doctoral dissertation was onThe Growth of Superpower Naval Rivalry in the Indian Ocean andSri Lankan Response andM.A. degree in History from theUniversity of Windsor, Windsor, Canada,presenting a dissertationtitledThe Origins of New Left in Sri Lanka. He obtainedhis B.A. from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

He served as Senior Professor in Modern History (2005 – 2015), Professor in Modern History, (2002 – 2005)and Associate Professor (1993- 2002) in the Department of History, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.  He was a Fulbright Visiting Professorat the Department of History, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, USA (2013 – 2014), Japan Foundation Senior Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo, Japan (2003-04) andSenior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, Perth (1991).

He was Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on Ethnic Affairs in 2002-03 and 2004-05;Secretary, Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and National Integration (2000-2001);Project Director, National Integration Programme Unit (NIPU)of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, National Integration and Constitutional Affairs (1997-2000); andCoordinator, Strategy and Research Committee (SRC) of the Ministry of Planning, Plan Implementation, Ethnic Affairs and NationalIntegration.

He has over 50 research publications to his credit. His area of research includes peace and security in the Indian Ocean, regional security architecture and cooperation in South Asia, identity politics and post-colonial State formation in Sri Lanka. In 2016, the University of Peradeniya honored Professor Gamini Keerawella by bestowing on him the Emeritus Professorship.

Prof. Keerawella retired from serving the University in 2015 and was appointed as the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) of the Sri Lankan Embassy in the United States of America, in October 2015 – October 2017. At present, he is the Executive Director, Regional Center for Strategic Studies(RCSS), Colombo.