Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri (born on 18th October, 1965) studied history at the University of Colombo for his BA (1991) and received MPhil from the same university in 2000, where he serves as a Professor now. He has an Advanced Masters (2002) and a PhD (2007) from the Leiden University, The Netherlands. He also has a diploma in Conflict Resolution (1994) from Uppsala University, Sweden. He was the Sri Lankan Studies Chair at the South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg University from April to September, 2017. His research interests include, social transformations in colonial societies, historiography and ethno-nationalist ideologies in Sri Lanka, Post-colonial state formation in Sri Lanka and radical political movements.