Vivian Choi

VIVIAN Y. CHOI, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, was awarded a Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship in August 2017 to aid research and writing on ‘Disaster Nationalism: Tsunami and Civil War in Sri Lanka.’ The Fellowship gave the grantee the opportunity to complete a draft of their manuscript, Disaster Nationalism: Tsunami and Civil War in Sri Lanka. In particular, the fellowship provided time to refine the introduction and three chapters of the book and also complete the first chapter, which was the most underdeveloped one at that moment. This chapter, entitled ‘Preemption’ provides more historical depth to the development of disaster nationalism in Sri Lanka, prior to the 2004 tsunami. The complete manuscript draft was sent to Duke University Press for review. While waiting for the reviews, the newest chapter was workshopped with writing groups and given as a talk at other institutions. As the fellowship year drew to an end, the grantee received their reader reports and was able to devise a clear revision path, with the happy result that the book is now under contract.