Mr Kyran de Silva
PhD candidate
Kyran is a doctoral researcher within the department of Economic, Social and Political Sciences. His multi-disciplinary work focuses on the transnational politics, activist organisations, and rights of South Asians in the UK. He is interested in the transfer of diasporic identity across generations and the ways in which diasporic youth challenge normative immigrant rhetoric.
Kyran’s PhD is funded by UKRI India and Southampton’s India Centre for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development. His outputs will contribute towards the think tank’s ‘Pioneers Project’ – a comprehensive study on the economic, social and political narratives of South Asian migration to the UK.
To ensure a harmonious and transnational future that is based on global equality, we must do more to understand the pressures faced at all levels of migratory and diasporic experience.
Academic & professional background:
Kyran completed his undergraduate studies in Geography and International Development (University of East Anglia 2018) before undertaking a Masters degree in Migration and Global Development studies (University of Sussex 2019). His Masters thesis focused on transnational networks of philanthropy and belonging amongst Sri Lankan Muslims in the UK.
Beyond academia he has worked on health and social policy reviews for Sri Lanka’s tea plantation communities, alongside the Human Development Organisation, Medicin du Monde and UN Women. His research experience also includes looking at EU student mobility in Seville for the Erasmus+ scheme, as well as assisting an Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre project on the long-term implications of internal migration.