The Newton Gunasinghe Memorial Lecture Series is organized annually to pay tribute to Dr Newton Gunasinghe who was an eminent Sociologist and a former Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology in the University of Colombo. Apart from his role as a Lecturer, he was also a Social Activist who empowered the Sri Lankan people especially the communities in the plantation sector. His contribution to Sri Lankan Sociology is striking and is conspicuous through his works such as ‘Changing socio-economic relations in the Kandyan countryside’, and ‘Newton Gunasinghe: Selected Essays’.
The Sociology Alumni Association of the University of Colombo in collaboration with the Department of Sociology organizes the annual lecture series to commemorate his contribution to the discipline. In May 2018, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Newton Gunasinghe Memorial Lecture Series. Dr Kumudu Kusum Kumara gave the lecture on the topic ‘“නවලිබරල්වාදයට එරෙහිව “සභ්යත්ව රාජ්යය” – බෞද්ධ හෘදය සාක්ෂිය අහිමි සුළු ධනේශ්වරයේ නැඟීම සහ “සංවර්ධනය” නාමයෙන් ලිබරල් ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය වැනසීම’.
