{"id":30874,"date":"2026-04-28T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=oasis-news&p=30874"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T05:51:05","slug":"making-milestones-achala-dissanayake","status":"publish","type":"oasis-news","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/oasis-news\/making-milestones-achala-dissanayake\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Milestones:\u00a0Mapping differences\u00a0between\u00a0experiences\u00a0with\u00a0epilepsy\u00a0in Australia and Sri Lanka\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Achala\u2019s goal for her PhD project isn\u2019t purely an academic one. Drawing from her own experiences with epilepsy, her extensive research background and the assistance of her supervisors, she aims to understand her own experiences with epilepsy and nurture spaces for the voices of those with the condition. | Reading time: 5 min<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per and Achala reflect on their relationship as supervisor and PhD student thus far. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achala<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For my PhD project, I’m\u202flooking at the lived experiences of epilepsy as a disability in Sri Lanka and in Australia. I want the\u202fproject to be a space for the voices of people who live with epilepsy, and I’m\u202fspeaking from experience as well because\u202fI\u202fhad epilepsy when I was a teenager.\u202fWithin the project, I’m\u202flooking beyond the\u202fmedical interpretations available on this topic and, instead, at how society and culture shape lived experiences and vice versa through autoethnography.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My main goal, on a personal level, is trying to make sense of my experience with epilepsy, because that is a conversation that I’ve never had\u202fwith\u202fmyself before I started my PhD.

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It was also something that was in the past because\u202fI’ve\u202fstopped having seizures, but with the\u202fpandemic\u202fand that sense of vulnerability, it made me question why I\u202fhadn’t reflected on my epilepsy experience.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u202falso wanted to know about what the experiences are like for Sri Lankans and Australians. I hope to see\u202fif there are any major differences between how epilepsy is experienced in Australia and how\u202fit’s\u202fexperienced in Sri Lanka.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I\u202fcame to\u202fPerth,\u202fI earned my BA in English from the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, and I was working at a\u202fprivate university as an English lecturer.\u202fWhile I was working, I completed a Master’s in English Studies at the same uni as well\u202fas\u202fa Master’s in Linguistics at the University of Kelaniya.\u202fIt just made\u202fsense\u202fthat my next step in my academic journey was a PhD because\u202fI\u202flike the\u202fjourney of researching.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I brainstormed some ideas along my research interests and found disability studies and the possibility of connecting my experience with my career and my love of writing. This project combines those aspects in a way that never happened during my master\u2019s thesis or bachelor’s dissertation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started my PhD journey by contacting supervisors around the globe who had done a lot of research in disability studies, and one of them was Rachel Robertson. Rachel contacted me, and she had CC\u2019d Per on the email, which is how we became this group.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subject recruitment for my research in Perth was pretty easy for me because I did an internship with Epilepsy WA. Through that, I met my interviewees, and the process was straightforward – I didn’t have to speak to doctors or go to the hospital, and I met a lot of people with epilepsy there who shared their story with me.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in Sri Lanka, there’s a lot of gatekeeping through hospitals, doctors, and clinics. I’ve\u202fspent a lot of time at\u202fthe epilepsy clinic in Colombo and met people, and they want to take part in an interview, but I find it difficult to schedule\u202fa date for the interview. I think\u202fit’s\u202falso been a challenge because in Australia, compared to Sri Lanka, there are more opportunities and more space for people to share their epilepsy\u202fstories and be listened to and not just get advice from other people who\u202fdon’t\u202fknow what the epilepsy experience is like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My greatest achievement so far would be\u202fthe\u202fscholarship application and the M1. For the scholarship application,\u202fI\u202freceived a lot of help from Per, and I don\u2019t think I would have been successful\u202fwithout\u202fhis feedback. And\u202ffor my M1, it was accepted without any\u202frevisions, and I was really surprised, but it\u202fwouldn’t\u202fhave been possible without Per and Rachel’s feedback and guidance.\u202fRegardless of whether it’s written or spoken face-to-face, Per and Rachel\u2019s feedback is always encouraging. It makes the journey easier.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While Achala\u2019s research\u202fdoesn’t\u202fnecessarily directly connect to my research area, it really connects to\u202fRachel\u2019s research\u202farea, and\u202fshe and I enjoy supervising together.\u202f  
When\u202fI’m\u202fthinking about taking on PhD supervisions,\u202fI think hard about how that person is going to be able to support themselves through that degree. So, I’m particularly interested in taking on PhD candidates who I think are serious contenders for a scholarship because\u202fit’s\u202fhard\u202fto finish a PhD when you don’t have that support. When Rachel and I looked at Achala\u2019s CV, it was clear to us that she had excelled through her bachelor’s degree, her two master’s degrees, and had published journal articles. She had a record that would support an application for a scholarship, and as an international student, that\u202fis so important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achala\u202fand I also had a video conversation early\u202fin the process, and we connected, and I felt like this was someone\u202fI’d\u202freally enjoy working with, seeing her\u202fevident\u202fpassion for this subject, and she really convinced me that it was a\u202fgreat idea.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I take on a PhD candidate, I try to supervise the\u202fwhole person, not just the researcher, by talking to them about opportunities that are coming up that might be of interest to them, internships, and ways of connecting to some of their fellow PhD candidates so that\u202fthey’re\u202fbuilding up a network.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve\u202fbeen at Curtin for eight years now, supervising PhDs, and\u202fI thought I knew what the university had to offer to support our PhD candidates throughout their degrees.\u202fBut Achala has regularly brought things to me that I didn’t even know we had. I\u202fdon’t\u202fknow anyone who has embraced every one of those opportunities like Achala. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think one of the great successes so far has been the huge\u202fleaps Achala has made during this research project.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Going from someone who says that she\u202fhadn’t\u202fever spoken to someone with epilepsy before coming to Australia, to someone who now has had this\u202fhuge range\u202fof experiences, done volunteer work and has been out in the community doing advocacy in a wholehearted way is really impressive.\u202fIt’s\u202fexciting to see the change and growth happening right in front of you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Achala