Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (Tamil: செல்வநாயகம் கனகநாயகம்; May 7, 1952 – November 22, 2014) was a Tamil Canadian translator, author and academic.
Professor Chelva Kanaganayakam | |
---|---|
செல்வா கனகநாயகம் | |
Born | C. Kanaganayakam May 7, 1952 |
Died | November 22, 2014 Montreal, Quebec, Canada | (aged 62)
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Academic |
Kanaganayakam was born on May 7, 1952, in Colombo, Ceylon.[1][2] He was the son of V. Chelvanayakam, head of the Department of Tamil at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, and Kamalambikai.[1][2][3][4] He was educated at Trinity College, Kandy.[5] After school Kanaganayakam joined the University of Sri Lanka Peradeniya campus but following Osmund Jayaratne's "re-organisation" of universities, he and other language and literature students were moved to the university's campus in Kelaniya.[1][6] He graduated in 1976 with a B.A. degree in English language and literature.[1][2][3][7]
Kanaganayakam was married to Thirumagal.[1][2][4] They had a daughter (Shankary) and a son (Jegan).[1][2][4]
Kanaganayakam was a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Jaffna before joining the University of British Columbia on a Commonwealth scholarship, receiving a Ph.D. degree in 1985 after producing a thesis, supervised by W. H. New, on the writings of Zulfikar Ghose.[1][2][3][7] Kanaganayakam joined the University of Toronto's Department of English in 1989 to research and teach Commonwealth literature.[1][2][7] Appointed a professor in 2002, he went on to become director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and co-ordinator of the independent studies program at Trinity College, Toronto.[1][2][3][7]
Kanaganayakam was a founding member of the Tamil Literary Garden and the Toronto Tamil Studies Conference.[1][2][3] On the morning of November 22, 2014, Kanaganayakam was inducted to the Royal Society of Canada as a fellow in Quebec City.[1][2][3][7] That evening, as he went to a celebratory dinner in Montreal, he suffered a heart attack and died.[1][2][3][7]
Kanaganayakam wrote, translated and edited several books:[3]