Nadeeka Karunaratne, PhD
I serve as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies, teaching courses such as “Building Conscious Allyship” and “Spiritual Responses to Gender-Based Violence.”
I work as a Research Associate at the University of Utah’s McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention, where I conduct critical qualitative research about interrupting harm in higher education.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, I focus on promoting healing and addressing issues of sexual and relationship violence through frameworks like abolition feminism and intersectionality.
The goal of fostering radical healing, or healing that addresses the complex role of intersecting forms of oppression, is the driving force of my professional work.
My research focuses on promoting healing through spiritually- and culturally-grounded practices, and identifying the strategies necessary to interrupt sexual and relationship violence in higher education and beyond.
I am a trauma-informed yoga instructor and facilitate healing yoga programs on college campuses and in the community.
I facilitate trainings on intersectionality in sexual & relationship violence work, critical qualitative methodologies, anti-racism in higher education, trauma-informed care, and wellness & healing as resistance.
My background in student affairs influences my research and teaching.
I have worked in the University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center, the Cross-Cultural Center at UC Irvine, and UC Irvine’s Campus Assault Resources & Education Office. I received my BS in Chemistry from UC Berkeley and MA in Student Affairs Administration from Michigan State University.
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area to Sri Lankan immigrant parents.
Nadeeka Karunaratne, PhD 