CLASS OF 2023: Honorary Award presented in recognition of gender equity and equality work

The University of Wolverhampton has awarded an Honorary Professorship to a leading Sri Lankan Professor in recognition of her extensive research, training and policy work on gender equity and equality. 

Honorary awards are presented by the University of Wolverhampton to people who have made a significant contribution to their field of expertise. 

Professor Maithree Wickramasinghe (PhD) is the Chair and Senior Professor of English at the Department of English and the founding Director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) at the University of Sussex and has been a visiting academic at a number of Sri Lankan universities during her academic career spanning 33 years. 

 An expert on gender, she is a scholar whose work interfaces research, teaching/training, policy development, evaluation, advocacy, and activism. She has almost thirty years’ experience formulating gender equity and equality polices/strategies, conducting gender sensitisation training, and evaluating women’s and gender programs for local and international higher educational institutions and organisations. It includes serving as a member of the Gender Advisory Group for the Gender Program of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Standing Committee on Gender Equity/Equality of the Sri Lankan University Grants Commission, amongst other institutions.    

Professor Wickramasinghe is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Asian University for Women based in Bangladesh and was recently appointed a Champion for Commonwealth Says No More (CSNM), an initiative of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the NO MORE Foundation.