Prof. Wimal Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s first professor of mass communication and most iconic figures in Asian communication and Asian cinema, has passed away in Hawaii.
Born on Sep. 06, 1939, in Kurunegala, Dissanayake was an alumnus of Trinity College, Kandy. after graduating from the University of Peradeniya, he pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Cambridge.
In the early 1970s, he played a foundational role in establishing the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Kelaniya (then Vidyalankara University), at a time when media and communication studies were still in their infancy in South Asia.
He was widely recognized as a creative writer, literary critic and leading scholar on Asian cinema and Asian communication theory. Throughout his academic career, he authored numerous books and publications on communication and cultural studies.
Dissanayake also served as head of the Institute for Culture and Communication at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.
Sri Lanka Mirror © 2026. All rights reserved.
Loading comments…