Vindhya Buthpitiya

postcolonial states have been trained to turn/wield their weapons against their own citizens and uphold/continue the work of empire. So long as this system endures, we will continue to be collectively exploited and/or murdered for the benefit of our colonizers.

happy new year from Colombo friends!

wishing everyone a very happy Christmas from Colombo 🎄

wishing everyone a very happy Christmas from Colombo 🎄

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.

‘This isn’t innovation—it’s institutional auto-cannibalism.’ | AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

70,000+ still in 760+ relief centres The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) reported that over 20,000 families affected by the recent disaster caused by cyclone Ditwah are still sheltered in relief centres

A total of 70,055 people from 22,522 families are currently sheltered in 762 relief centres across Sri Lanka www.themorning.lk/articles/Qqt... #CycloneDitwah

Studio Ilankai: A Tamil Photographic History of Sri Lankan Citizenship with Vindhya Buthpitiya — By / For: Photography & Democracy Sri Lanka’s recent history and present, characterised by majoritarian governance, ethno-nationalist conflict, and civil war, is entangled with the multidimensional marginalisation of the island’s Tami...

giving a rare (these days) lecture online in the spring (6th March 2026): Studio Ilankai: A Tamil Photographic History of Sri Lankan Citizenship. Info and registration: www.byforcollective.com/programs/vin...

Palestinians in Gaza are dying as the Israeli siege turns harsh winter weather deadly Severe weather conditions in Gaza have claimed the lives of 13 people, including babies who froze to death, as Israel continues to block the entry of aid that could provide shelter to 1.5 million…

Severe weather conditions in Gaza have claimed the lives of 13 people, including babies who froze to death, as Israel continues to block the entry of aid that could provide shelter to 1.5 million Palestinians living in worn-out tents.
mondoweiss.net/2025/12/pale...

likewise 🙏🏽

Satellite images show the scale of destruction from Asia floods More than 1,800 people have died as floods have ravaged Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

More than 1,800 people have died as floods have ravaged Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

the figures charting the destruction to infrastructure presented in this UNDP / DMC rapid assessment are truly staggering. | Mapping the Initial Impact of Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka geosmart.undp.org/arcgis/apps/...

Sri Lanka declares emergency as floods wreak havoc across Colombo More than 25,000 homes destroyed, 147,000 displaced, in Sri Lanka's deadliest flood since 2017, affecting Colombo.

Sri Lanka declares emergency as floods wreak havoc across Colombo
- More than 25,000 homes destroyed, 147,000 displaced, as Sri Lanka faces its deadliest flood since 2017, affecting the capital. www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025...

Studio East: Everyday Photography and the Militarisation of Leisure in Trincomalee - Eidolon Journal by Vindhya Buthpitiya This essay by Vindhya Buthpitiya is the result of her research supported by the inaugural Eidolon Grant, awarded in 2024. Studio East: Everyday Photography and the Militarisation...

wrote about Trincomalee's long history of occupations not long ago. Relevant given the current discourse on the state's insidious, colonially-rooted practice of archaeological claim-making everydayphotography.org/journal/stud...

‘Picturing the Disappeared,’ which is focused on the protests of the Tamil families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka, making up ‘Images rémanentes de la disparition forcée’ at the Mural Alexei Jaccard-Droits Humains, Geneva will be on view until 15th February 2026 www.unige.ch/cite/eveneme...

Home Office eVisa failures leave thousands 'unable to work or leave UK' Foreign nationals have been wrongly charged for NHS treatment and incorrectly told they have been given refugee status, according to campaigners

surprising no one who has been living with the stress of this mess every time they need to verify ID. | Home Office eVisa failures leave thousands 'unable to work or leave UK' inews.co.uk/news/home-of...

Enforced Disappearances, Civil Resistance and the Rule of Law - this Wednesday in Geneva

Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.

(Universities cutting literature programmes) are robbing future generations of the capacity to determine what constitutes “good” art, take pleasure in it, and create their own—thereby leaving it to the elite, and to machines owned by the elite, to decide for them lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...

excited to get started on this one in time for Halloween 🎃

More mass graves at Chemmani and Sri Lanka’s old failures of justice IN FEBRUARY this year, I could hardly believe it when I heard that more bodies had been discovered during construction work near Chemmani, in Jaffna district in

More mass graves at Chemmani and Sri Lanka’s old failures of justice: an observer of the 1999 Chemmani exhumations reflects on newly uncovered mass graves & Sri Lanka’s continued failure to deliver justice for Tamil victims of war-time crimes www.himalmag.com/politics/sri...

I see that anthropology has returned to some truly wtf writing on war.

it's end times all round isn't it? | Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

do people in the global north realise just how much they actively obstruct the movement/mobility of those from the global south? At least stop downplaying/pleading ignorance about what your governments demand of us for trying to live, work & travel like the rest of you get to do.

A Volatile Picture

my book (!) ‘A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka’ encompassing a decade of research on Tamil photographic practices set against a backdrop of ethno/nationalist conflict & the island’s turbulent post/war out Spring 26 uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295...

The growing dangers of Sri Lanka’s Israel nexus MOHAMED SUHAIL, a 21-year-old student, was searching for lodgings in the Colombo suburb of Dehiwala on 23 October 2024 when a mobile police unit arrested him ne

The growing dangers of Sri Lanka’s Israel nexus: Pro-Israel groups & Buddhist extremists are expanding Israeli influence in Sri Lanka, stoking anti-Muslim sentiment as the government maintains ambivalence around Palestine and the Gaza genocide www.himalmag.com/politics/sri... @himalmag.bsky.social

Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday

🙃 Ministers are to give police new powers to target repeated protests, aimed particularly at cracking down on demonstrations connected to Gaza, the Home Office has said. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

these families deserve justice and answers about their loved ones who were disappeared during and after the Sri Lankan civil war, in many instances following surrender to the armed forces. Their courage, persistence and activism is a lesson to us all.

I hope it brings important and necessary attention and visibility to the ongoing protests of the Tamil families of the disappeared. The protests began in February 2017 and have continued for well over 3000 days despite the relentless cruelty and violence of the Sri Lankan state.

the installation will form part of the Alexei Jaccard Human Rights Mural at the University of Geneva, alongside the work of Colombian visual artist Óscar Muñoz www.unige.ch/rectorat/mai... and will run from today, the 18th of September 2025 to 15th February 2026.

'Images rémanentes de la disparition forcée' feauturing a video adaptation of my 2022 article (rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....) on the political uses of photography by the Tamil Families of the Disappeared in Northern Sri Lanka opens in Geneva this evening www.unige.ch/cite/eveneme...

Police assaulted as far-right rally led by Tommy Robinson sparks clashes More than 110,000 people join Tommy Robinson-organised protest featuring racist conspiracy theories and hate speech

Far-right London rally sees record crowds and violent clashes with police: More than 110,000 people join Tommy Robinson-organised protest featuring racist conspiracy theories and hate speech www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...