Dr Vindhya Buthpitiya

Dr Vindhya Buthpitiya

Lecturer

Email
vlb9@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
Room 57, School 5
Location
United Colleges
Office hours
By appointment only

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Research areas

I am an anthropologist working at the intersection of conflict and visual culture. My research is focused on resistance, ethno-nationalist conflict, and political violence in Sri Lanka, examining the local and global aftermaths of civil war through the making and moving of images.

My recent projects have explored the political work of photography, the transnational visual economies of war death, and the interlinked iconographies of justice and accountability.

My book is forthcoming with University of Washington Press (Spring 2026). I also co-edited (Duke University Press, 2023).

I am a member of the and curate the , Sri Lanka.

Smoke, Shadow, Light: War and Photography in Sri Lanka

This project is an ethnographic exploration of the political work of photography in northern Sri Lanka. Centred on the Tamil community in Jaffna and the Vanni, it extends from the everyday workings of photography studios embedded within citizenship registration projects as well as immigration regimes; the animated afterlives of state-necessitated identity photographs, memorial portraits, wedding and family albums, and visual ‘evidence’ of wartime atrocity and trauma captured by ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’; transient offline and online sites of protest and commemoration; to the efforts of amateur photographers and activists questioning and reclaiming visual narratives of identity and place through photography-oriented social media platforms.

The interconnections between these disparate ethnographic contexts illuminate the empirical disquiet between the theoretical positions on photography as ideological tool and emancipatory practice.

This research was undertaken to inform a wider European Research Council-funded project ‘.

‘Riot’: Incitement, Ambivalent Remembrance, and the Visual Remains of the Black July Pogrom

This research explores the production and circulation of imagery relating to Sri Lanka’s ‘Black July’ pogrom. Widely held as marking the ‘beginning’ of the civil war (1983-2009), this episode of communal violence continues to be re-animated in the postwar present. Media imagery, witness accounts, and literary and visual artists’ responses to the violence emerge each year to mark the anniversary of the event. Such remembrance calls attention not to the lives lost but to a status quo of enduring ethnic conflict and political injustice. This project is a twofold consideration of the question of ‘incitement’ at the intersection of the political and visual by undertaking archival and ethnographic fieldwork in Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. By analysing contemporary recursions of the ‘riot,’ it examines how ‘incitement’ might be perceived by impacted communities and the role of images in triggering, evidencing, and commemorating political violence.

This research is supported by a Research Incentive Grant from the

PhD supervision

  • AshleyÌýBowes
  • XiÌýChen
  • VladaÌýVazheyevskyy
  • YangdiÌýWu

Selected publications

  • Buthpitiya, V., 26 Aug 2025, FLIP: London Independent Photography, 61, p. 50-53.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Book/Film/Article review

  • Buthpitiya, V., 18 Sept 2025

    Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition

  • Open access
    Buthpitiya, V., 8 Sept 2025, Eidolon Journal.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

  • Open access
    Buthpitiya, V., 29 Nov 2024, Urban Violence Research Network.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

  • Open access
    Pinney, C. (Editor), Binaisa, N. (Editor), Buthpitiya, V. (Editor), Kalantzis, K. (Editor), Selejan, I. L. (Editor) & Young, S. (Editor), 15 Sept 2023, Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 354 p.

    Research output: Book/Report › Book

  • Open access
    Buthpitiya, V., 1 May 2023, In: Trans Asia Photography. 13, 1

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Buthpitiya, V. & Kumaragurunathan, T., 20 Aug 2023

    Research output: Non-textual form › Digital or Visual Products

  • Open access
    Buthpitiya, V., 15 Sept 2023, Citizens of photography: the camera and the political imagination. Pinney, C., Binaisa, N., Buthpitiya, V., Kalantzis, K., Selejan, I. L. & Young, S. (eds.). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, p. 63-110 48 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

  • Open access
    Buthpitiya, V., 15 Jun 2022, In: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 28, S1, p. 118-134 17 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Buthpitiya, V., Jan 2022, Language is Migrant, p. 158-163.

    Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

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