Sri Lanka Conflict Events and State Sanctioned Violence Data
VOLUME: 4 linear feet
ACCESS: This collection is open to the public upon request.
COPYRIGHT: Please consult the archivist for information about duplication or publishing of any materials from this collection.
Biographical Note
John Richardson was born in 1938 and graduated from Dartmouth in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in history. For the next five years he was commissioned officer on duty in the Navy. In 1965 he returned to school and in 1968 he received a PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota. For the next year he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Comparative Studies in Technological Development and Social Change at the University of Minnesota. From 1969 to 1975 Richardson was a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, first in the political science department and then in the systems engineering department. In 1975 Richardson moved to American University and became a faculty member in the School of International Service where from 1991 to 2000 he was the director of doctoral studies. Richardson was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1982-1983 academic year and in 1988 served as a visiting professor at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka. Richardson teaches International Development and was the director of the University's Center for Teaching Excellence.
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains materials compiled by John Richardson and a team of Sri Lankan researchers for his book Paradise Poisoned: Learning about Conflict, Terrorism and Development from Sri Lanka's Civil Wars. The vast majority of the collection is made up of completed forms documenting episodes of violence in Sri Lanka from 1948 to 1988. These forms include information on the date, duration and location of incidents along with a description of the event and a note about sources. Also included is a comprehensive database generated using the information collected in the violence data forms and a smaller database that includes only monthly summaries. Lastly, there are more violence data forms filed separately and devoted to state-sanctioned violence.
Provenance
This collection was donated to American University Archives by John Richardson in July 2009.
Box and Folder Listing
Box 1
Conflict Events (Violence Data),1948-1984
Box 2
Conflict Events (Violence Data), 1985-1987 June
Box 3
Conflict Events (Violence Data), 1987 July - 1988 September
Box 4
Conflict Events (Violence Data), 1988 October-December
Database
Monthly Summaries
State Sanctioned Violence, 1965-1988