DrMelathi Saldin

International Member, ICOMOS

Association of Critical Heritage Studies

Society of Architectural and Urban Historians of Asia

Royal Asiatic Society, Sri Lanka Branch

2015 Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship, Deakin University, Melbourne.

2010 Durham Doctoral Studentship, Durham University, UK (awarded but not taken up due to personal reasons)

2009 Vice Chancellors Award for Outstanding Young Researcher in Social Sciences 2009, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

2008 Vice Chancellors Award for Outstanding Young Researcher in Social Sciences 2008, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

2022 Resilience as a framework for understanding the dynamics of heritage in post-war Sri Lanka Paper presented at the Sri Lankas Built Environment Panel 24th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA), Monash University, Melbourne. 5-8 July 2022

2021 Excavating the power politics of heritage in post-war Sri Lanka: Hegemonic narratives and resilient minorities Paper presented at the People, Places and Heritage Stream Seminar, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne. 17th November 2021

Divided we fall: Addressing and disrupting racialized government and media reporting in Australia joint paper with Vivian Gerrand, Michele Lobo, William Abur and Josh Roose. Presented at the ADI International Conference Recovery, reconfiguration and, repair: Mobilising the social sciences and humanities for a post-pandemic world, Deakin University, Melbourne. 11th 12th November 2021

Excavating the power politics of heritage in post-war Sri Lanka: Hegemonic narratives and resilient minorities Paper presented at the Mobilities, Diversity and Multiculturalism Stream Seminar, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne. 17th September 2021

2018 Cultural resilience of tiny minorities: A case study of the Sri Lankan Malays. Presented at the Conference on Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean: Diversity and Pluralism, Past and Present, Aga Khan University, London. 12th 14th September 2018

Pushing boundaries: Heritage resilience of minority communities in post-war Sri Lanka. Presented at the Association of Critical Heritage Studies 4th Biennial Conference on Heritage Across Borders, Hangzhou, China. 1st 6th September 2018

Rising from the ashes heritage and post-war recovery in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war Cultural Heritage Asia-Pacific Research Network (CHAP) Seminar Series, Deakin University, Melbourne, 30th May 2018

Heritage in the aftermath of war: Heritage and resilience of the Muslim minority community in post-war Sri Lanka Presented at the Heritage Under Fire Symposium, Deakin University, Melbourne, 2nd February 2018

2017 Heritage as resilience: The role of minority communities in post-war Sri Lanka. Presented at the 19th ICOMOS General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (Heritage and Democracy), New Delhi, India, 11th 15th December 2017

2016 Archaeology in post-war Sri Lanka: The many helping hands Presented at the Heritage, Sustainability and Social Justice Postgraduate Symposium, Deakin University, Melbourne, 28th 29th November 2016

2015 Post-conflict heritage in Sri Lanka. Presented at Deakinstruction: Higher Degree by Research Symposium, Deakin University, Melbourne, 30th November 2015

Co-Chair - Sri Lanka ICOMOS National Scientific Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage

Resource Person - Sustainable Heritage Management Course (UNESCO, Bangkok) (2021 & 2023)

Researcher - Facilitating community agency and competencies in the Chiang Mai, Thailand, UNESCO World Heritage nomination process (with Chiang Mai University (Thailand) and UNESCO Bangkok) (2021)

2015 Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship, Deakin University, Melbourne.

2010 Durham Doctoral Studentship, Durham University, UK (awarded but not taken up due to personal reasons)

2009 Vice Chancellors Award for Outstanding Young Researcher in Social Sciences 2009, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.