Samanthi Gunawardana is Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at The Pennsylvania State University.

Samanthi J. Gunawardana is an Instructor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations. She is completing her cross-disciplinary Ph.D. in Management and Development Studies at The University of Melbourne, Australia. Samanthi’s research examines the employment systems of Export Processing Zones, and the social and political dimensions of economic development and reform as it pertains to the lived experiences of poor women workers. Her experience working alongside and living with women workers in Sri Lanka’s EPZs as part of her dissertation fieldwork had led her to question and explore subjective notions of collectivity and grassroots forms of organization in a context where traditional forms of trade union organizing and bargaining have largely failed, had not been attempted, or constrained.