Honoring the Legacy of Jackie Kirk

Abstract

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Jackie Kirk, a co-founder of Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and an incredibly effective member of the global education community who died at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan on 13 August 2008 while working on a project on girls’ education. As an activist and researcher Jackie had a great range of expertise, including that of dealing with education in emergencies, the challenges facing women teachers, and the menstruation-related needs of school-going girls, as well as a grasp of the importance of visual images in understanding the realm of girls’ education. She brought to her work an attention to critical theoretical concepts alongside the practical; she always placed girls and women (especially women teachers) at the center of her explorations, her analyses, and her recommendations for policy and practice.