Kusuma Karunaratne

Kusuma Karunaratne "nee" Ediriweera Jayasooriya(November 21,1940 - ) is a Sri Lankan academic, university administrator, Professor and scholar of Sinhalese language and literature. [http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/01/07/spe05.asp "Darling we aren't too old, though we pass the Jubilee Gold: Mathematician + intellectual = love,"Sunday Observer", January 7, 2007.] ] [Tissera-Gunasekara, Manu. [http://www.dailymirror.lk/inside/letters/15082007.asp "Kusuma Karunaratne: The simple, traditional Sri Lankan lady,"] "Daily Mirror." August 15, 2007.]

Early life

Kusuma Jayasooriya completed her undergraduate education at the University of Ceylon in the Peradeniya campus; [see above] ] there in 1964, she became the the first female student in her discipline to earn a First class honours degree from that institution.Perera, Suharshi. [http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/08/09/fea12.asp "Woman: An icon in the literary world,"] "Daily News" (Sri Lanka). August 9, 2007.] .

Academic career

An academic career began with her appointment as an assistant lecturer of the Department of Sinhala at the University of Ceylon. She later married Samarajeewa Karunaratne a junior faculty colleague. In 1967, Mrs. Karunaratne and her husband travelled to the United Kingdom where both furthered their education with post-graduate studies, with her studying Sociology of Literature at the University of Essex.Fact|date=March 2008 Later she pursued graduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.Fact|date=March 2008 She was awarded her doctorate from the University of Colombo. Karunaratne became the first female lecturer in Sinhala Department at the University of Columbo, and she was to be the first female Professor of Sinhala and the first woman to head that Department. Professor Karunaratne would later go on to become the Dean and the Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo.

During her career she had taught Sinhala to many Japanese, including professors and diplomats, thus helping to strengthen the relations between Japan and Sri Lanka. She had translated many English and Japanese novels to Sinhala.

Publications

*"A Glimpse of Japanese Culture" [ [http://www.lk.emb-japan.go.jp/eg/contents/Archives/Speech%20by%20Ambassador%20Otsuka%20at%2050th%20anniversary.pdf Speech at Seminar in Commemoration of Fifty Years of Bilateral Relations between Sri Lanka and Japan," (2002).] ]
*"Selected Sri Lankan Short Stories," Vol. I & Vol. II. , co-authored (with Sarath Wijesooriya), published by Godage Publishing 10-ISBN 9-552-06238-1, 10-ISBN 9-552-06239-x
*English-Sinhalese translation of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises"

Honors & Awards

* Ruhunu Putra Award
* Liya Waruna Award
* Japan Foundation, Fellow.
* Order of the Rising Sun, with Gold Rays

References

External links

* [http://www.dailymirror.lk/inside/letters/15082007.asp Kusuma Karunaratne: The simple, traditional Sri Lankan lady]
* [http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/01/07/spe05.asp Darling we aren't too old, though we pass the Jubilee Gold:Mathematician + intellectual = love, by Lakmal Welabada]
* YouTube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_Dpqo2Ax24&feature=related video montage]