Prof. Wimal Dissanayake was awarded the prestigious Asian Communication Award for 2021 by the Asian Media Information and Communication Center in the Philippines on04 December.

This award is given to the most outstanding communication scholars in Asia who have excelled in their chosen pursuits. This honor was conferred on Dissanayake primarily in recognition of his path-breaking work in the domain of Asian theories of communication and Asian cinema.

Prof. Dissanayake has written a large number of academic papers in English on the subject of Asian concepts of communication. He has also written a several books on Asian cinema published by such prestigious presses as Oxford, Cambridge, Duke, Minnesota, Indiana University Presses. He has published five books on Indian cinema in London. He was invited to co-edit the Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas. Prof Wimal Dissanayake has done pioneering work in the field of Asian theories of communication opening up new and exciting pathways of inquiry. In the award citation it is said that ‘Dissanayake’s scholarship embodies the pursuit of the road less travelLer in communication inquiry.’

The citation goes on to say that, ‘Prof. Dissanayake is a true Asianist who does not discriminate between social sciences and humanities and between critical communication studies and other applications of Indigenous knowledge systems. He is a superb synthesizer and an excellent builder of thought, a prolific enunciator of complex theories. He is a scholar par excellence.’