Suranjan Weeraratne
Suranjan Weeraratne is Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce and Economics from the University of New Delhi, India in 1999. Subsequently, he completed his Master’s in International Relations at Claremont Graduate University in California in 2002 and his Ph.D. in Political Science at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 2009.
Dr. Weeraratne’s scholarly research focuses on several areas of international and domestic security including terrorism, ethnic violence, religious riots, organized crime and human/drugs trafficking. Much of his recent research has been devoted to understanding transnational terrorism. Specifically, linkages between large transnational terrorist outfits like ISIS and more local Islamist militant groups in various parts of the world. He is also interested in assessing under what conditions various terrorist organizations resort to specific tactics such as suicide bombing, kidnapping of hostages etc. His research has been published in several outlets including Terrorism and Political Violence, Social Science Asia, the World Bank and in edited volumes. Prior to Joining SIUE, Dr. Weeraratne was employed as a consultant at the World Bank in Washington DC for two years where he worked on issues of political violence and development. He was a co-author of the 2011 World Development Report titled “Conflict, security and Development.”
Weeraratne is originally from Sri Lanka and his research focus on violence was partly influenced by growing up in the midst of the civil war in Sri Lanka. He has spent much of the last two decades in several countries such as India, Canada, Indonesia and the United States. He lives in the St. Louis area with his wife and counts travelling and cooking cuisine from different countries among his passions.
Courses recently taught:
- Political Science 111, Introduction to Political Science
- Political Science 352, Politics of Development
- Political Science 370, Introduction to International Relations
- Political Science 371, International Political Economy
- Political Science 400, Senior Assignment Seminar
- Political Science 459, Politics of the Middle East
- Political Science 479, New Forms of Violence on the International Stage
- Interdisciplinary Studies 340, War and Peace (scheduled to be offered in Spring 2018 with Nancy Lutz)
Recent publications:
Weeraratne, Suranjan, and Sterling Recker. "The isolated Islamists: The case of the Allied Democratic Forces in the Ugandan-Congolese borderland." Terrorism and Political Violence (2016): 1-25.
Weeraratne, Suranjan. “State Policy and Entrepreneurial Ethnic Migrants: The Experiences of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia,” Social Science Asia, Volume 2, No. 1 (2016): 77-92.
Weeraratne, Suranjan. "Theorizing the Expansion of the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria." Terrorism and Political Violence (2015): 1-25.
Cliffe, Sarah, Nigel Roberts, Erik Alda, David Andersson, Kenneth Anye, Holly Benner, Natalia Cieslik et al. "World Development Report 2011: Conflict, security, and development." World Bank Group, New York, NY (2011).
Weeraratne, Suranjan. Ethnic entrepreneurs and collective violence: Assessing spatial variations in anti-Chinese rioting within Jakarta during the May 1998 riots. No. 2010, 55. Working paper, World Institute for Development Economics Research (2010).
Shyamsundar, Priya, Eduardo Araral, and Suranjan Weeraratne. "Devolution of resource rights, poverty, and natural resource management." Environment Department Working Paper 104, (World Bank: Washington D.C., 2005).
Professional contact information:
Department of Political Science
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
3227 Peck Hall, Box 1453
Edwardsville, IL 62026
Email: sweerar@siue.edu
Phone: 618-650-2637
