Biography

Professor Sandagomi Coperahewa

මහාචාර්ය සඳගෝමි කෝපරහේවා  

Professor Sandagomi Coperahewa, BA, MA, MPhil, PhD  is a Sri Lankan academic and Chair Professor and Head, Department of Sinhala, University of Colombo.  A linguist by training, Professor Coperahewa’s main research areas are modern Sinhala usage, sociology of Sinhala language, and language policy planning.  He has published several Sinhala and English publications on Sinhala language and language planning in Sri Lanka. As an expert on the Sinhala Language, Professor Coperahewa provides consultancies to many government institutions on various issues related to Sinhala usage, grammar and language policy planning.

Early life, Education & Family

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Professor Sandagomi Coperahewa was born in 1969 and grew up in Madiwela, Kotte. His father Sandadas Coperahewa was a teacher at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, and also a Sinhala scholar who followed the ideals of Munidasa Cumaratunga’s Hela Havula movement. As a child, Coperahewa had the good fortune to obtain the first lessons in the Sinhala language from his learned father.  Coperahewa’s mother (Adlin Aluthgamahewa) was also served as a primary teacher at a government school. Coperahewa has a one brother (Dr. Sanath Coperahewa). 

Sandagomi Coperahewa was educated at S.Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia where he won many prizes for his academic excellence.  At S. Thomas, he excelled in many extra- curricular activities and served as the President of the Sinhala Literary and Debating Society and President of the Buddhist Students Association. He was appointed as a College Prefect.  During his schooldays at STC, he won C.E. Jayanayake Special Prize for Sinhala for four consecutive years. He also won the coveted Victoria Jubilee Prize for the Best All Round Student of the College (1990) in recognition of his outstanding A/L results and extra-curricular activities.

In 1992, Coperahewa entered the University of Colombo and read for a Special Arts Degree in Sinhala and graduated with a BA First Class Honours degree in 1996. At the university, he also ‘topped the batch’ at the final examination and won Niel Bandaranaiake Prize and M. B. Ariyapala award for the best academic performance. As an undergraduate at the Department of Sinhala, University of Colombo, Coperahewa paid special attention to the field of Sinhala language studies and completed his BA dissertation on ‘Language Planning – a study of Sinhala Language’ under the guidance of Professor J.B. Disanayaka.  Soon after graduation, Coperahewa was recruited as a Temporary Assistant Lecturer in 1996 and later Lecturer in Sinhala (1999) at the Department of Sinhala.

Attracted to modern linguistics, Coperahewa continued his research interest in language studies and obtained his MA (Distinction) in Language Studies from Lancaster University, UK under the auspices of a Commonwealth Scholarship. At Lancaster University he paid special attention to the field of Sociolinguistics under the guidance of Professor Mark Sebba. After completing his MPhil in Sinhala under the supervision of Professor P.B. Meegaskumbura at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Coperahewa proceeded to the UK to complete his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge under the patronage of an ORS Award and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship. As a doctoral researcher, Coperahewa focused on the pre-independence language politics in Sri Lanka and his doctoral supervisors were Professor Francesca Orsini and Professor Sujit Sivasundaram. Coperahewa obtained his PhD in South Asian Studies from Cambridge in 2009 for the dissertation titled ‘The Politics of Language in Colonial Sri Lanka, 1900 – 1948’. 

Professor Coperahewa is married and has two children. 

Teaching & Professional Career

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Returning to Colombo after his postgraduate studies, Coperahewa continued his task of teaching courses on the Sinhala language and sociolinguistics. He introduced several course units to the department based on his postgraduate training in language and sociolinguistics. His main teaching areas are language and communication, sociolinguistics, modern Sinhala usage and academic writing. He was promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer in Sinhala in 2005. As an active teacher in the Faculty of Arts, Coperahewa held many positions such as Student Counsellor, Senior Treasurer,  Academic Warden and Activity Co-ordinator | IRQUE Project.  Coperahewa was accredited as a Teacher in Higher Education by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) UK (2002).

As an academic, Coperahewa was instrumental in setting up centres and new study programmes for the University of Colombo. He was the Founder Director of the Centre for Contemporary Indian Studies (CCIS) a multidisciplinary research centre devoted to contemporary Indian Studies in Sri Lanka. As the founder Co-ordinator of MA in Sinhala, he contributed towards introducing a new Masters programme in Sinhala.  In 2013, Coperahewa was promoted to the post of Professor in Sinhala at the University of Colombo based on his teaching, administrative and research performance. In 2018, Coperahewa was appointed as the Chair of the Annual Research Symposium of the University of Colombo.  He was appointed Head of the Department of Sinhala, University of Colombo in 2019.  In the same year, as Head | Sinhala, he launched a series of programs to celebrate the 75^th anniversary (1944 -20219) of teaching Sinhala at the University.

As a senior academic, Coperahewa has extended his services as a Visiting Lecturer, Board Member to IHRA, Sri Palee Campus and Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

Apart from his teaching and administrative duties, Coperahewa extended his expertise in Sinhala language to various government and non-governmental bodies such as Department of Official Languages, National Institute of Education, Department of Educational Publications, Sri Lanka Press Council, Natural Language Processing Centre, University of Moratuwa, etc. Currently, he is a member of the Official Language Commission, Sri Lanka.  

Research and Publications

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A linguist by training, Coperahewa’s main research areas are modern Sinhala usage, sociology of Sinhala language, social history of Sinhala and language policy planning. He has authored twelve books and several scholarly articles related to Sinhala language, grammar, communication and language policy planning in Sri Lanka. His major works include Bhashanuragaye Desapalanaya (1999) Sinhala Akshara Vinyasa Akaradiya (2000), The Language Planning Situation in Sri Lanka (Routledge, 2009), Visivana Siyavase Sinhala Bhasha Vyvaharaya (2010), Sinhala Puvathpath kalave Purogamiyo (2012) Purifying the Sinhala Language (Cambridge, 2012), Sinhala Sandhi Akaradiya (2014) and Sinhala Akuru Puranaya (2018).

Apart from his main research areas, Coperahewa actively engaged in various research and collaborative projects related to Rabindranath Tagore and Contemporary India. He edited two-volume titled Remembering Rabindranath Tagore (2012) One Hundred Years of Gitanajli 1913 – 2013 in connection with Tagore’s anniversary celebrations in Sri Lanka.  As a researcher, Coperahewa has presented many research papers on the Sinhala language, language policy planning in national and international symposiums held in Sri Lanka and abroad.

 Ongoing Research/ Publication Projects:

Compiling a history of the Department of Official Languages (sponsored by the Department of Official Languages)

Compiling an illustrated History of College House (sponsored by University of Colombo)   

Tagore’s Visits to Sri Lanka (Research project funded by the University of Colombo)

A Critical Study of Munidasa Cumaratunga (Book project – published by S. Godage)

Sinhala Textbook on Language and Linguistics ((Book project – published by S. Godage)

Compilation of a Sinhala Thesaurus (Research Project funded by the University of Colombo). 

Awards and Honors

Godage National Literary Award for සිංහල අකුරු පුරාණය Best Academic Book published in 2018 ( S.Godage Publishers)

Buddhist Literary Festival National Award for සිංහල අකුරු පුරාණය Best Academic Book published in 2018 (All Ceylon Buddhist Congress & Ministry of Buddha Sasana)

Developing World Education Fund and Smuts Scholarship in Commonwealth       

Studies (Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, University of Cambridge, UK, 2006 -2009)

Overseas Research Students Award: for doctoral studies

(Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme, Universities UK, 2006 – 2009)

Smuts Memorial Fund Award (Smuts Memorial Fund, University of Cambridge, UK, 2007)

NCAS Grant (National Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities & Social Sciences, Sri Lanka, 2007 -2009)

Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship (Association of Commonwealth Universities, UK, 2003 -2004)

India- Sri Lanka Foundation Research Grant (High Commission of India, Colombo 2011-2013)

University Research Grants (2001, 2010, 2015, 2019-University of Colombo)

Prof. M.B. Ariyapala Award for Sinhala (University of Colombo, 1996)

Neil Bandaranaike Award (1993 & 1996 University of Colombo)

Mahapola Higher Education (Merit) Scholarship (1992 – 1995)

 

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