Robin Kirk, Professor of the Practice of Cultural Anthropology

The core of my work is to understand and communicate new ideas of human rights, including young people in that conversation. In addition to founding Duke's Human Rights Certificate program for undergraduates, I explore human rights themes in my writing for adults and children. One of my goals for teaching is to ensure that students see human rights in what Eleanor Roosevelt once described as the "small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world ... Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere." One of my proudest achievements is to have worked in community to help launch the Pauli Murray Center, which seeks to use the legacy of this Durham daughter to examine the region’s past of slavery, segregation, and continuing economic inequality. My book, Righting Wrongs: 20 Human Rights Heroes from around the World, introduces young readers to some of the people who helped create modern human rights. I also write fantasy and science fiction as a way of exploring human rights themes in story.  "The Bond" fantasy trilogy imagines a female-led society determined to win peace though at the cost of the genocide of men. 

Contact Info:   

Office Location:	114 S. Buchanan Blvd., Smith Warehouse B183, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 641-0635
Email Address:
Web Pages:	http://humanrights.fhi.duke.edu http://www.robinkirk.com

Teaching (Spring 2026):

• CULANTH 104.01, INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs B271, TuTh 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as HISTORY 116.01, ICS 113.01, PUBPOL 162.01, RIGHTS 104.01)

• CULANTH 244S.01, WRITING FOR CHANGE Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs C104, Tu 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

  (also cross-listed as ENGLISH 240S.01, RIGHTS 244S.01)

• LS 780.01, SELECTED TOPICS Synopsis

  GLS 2114 0101, W 06:30 PM-09:00 PM

Education:

M.F.A.	Vermont College	2014
B.A.	The University of Chicago	1982

Specialties:

Human Rights
Cultural Memory
Transnational Studies

Research Interests: Human rights, post-conflict reconciliation

Current projects: Biography of a Wall, Young adult trilogy, human rights education

My interests include the place of human rights within a university course of study and how to deal with the past from a rights framework, including memorialization, post-conflict negotiation, cross-community relations and ways to visualize and construct frameworks around dialogue between different communities. I consider myself an engaged scholar, conducting research but also engaging in the creation of human rights advocacy, whether through anti-torture coalition-building, the Pauli Murray Project’s goals of recovering rights history in Durham or bringing Duke students to Northern Ireland to help fortify the peace process. Broadly, I am also interested in how and in what way societies create a human rights culture and the opportunities and drawbacks of different educational approaches. I am committed to promoting human rights work both at home, in communities like the one where Duke is located, and abroad.

Areas of Interest:

Latin America
Northern Ireland
human rights

Keywords:

Colombia • Conflict management • Creative writing • Creative writing--Fiction • Creative writing--Juvenile literature • Denial of justice • dystopia • Fantasy • Fantasy gamers • human rights • Human Rights • Human rights advocacy • Human rights and globalization • Human rights movements • Human rights--America • Human rights--History--20th century • Human rights--Northern Ireland • Journalism • memorialization • Memory Studies • Muser Mentor • Northern Ireland • Online journalism • Peru • post-conflict reconciliation • Science fiction • Science fiction films • Truth commissions • Young adult literature

Duties:

Faculty Co-Director, Duke Human Rights Center@FHI Lecturer, Cultural Anthropology DukeImmerse: Rights and Identities director BorderWork(s) Humanities Lab co-director Member, Consortium for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Steering Committee member for the Pauli Murray Project Director of the DukeEngage in Northern Ireland program Academic Adviser

Curriculum Vitae  Bio

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Kirk, R, The Mother's Wheel Book Three of the Bond Trilogy (September, 2022), pp. 300 pages, ISBN 9798985584141  [abs]
2. Kirk, R, The Hive Queen Book Two of the Bond Trilogy (June, 2022), pp. 326 pages, ISBN 9798985584127  [abs]
3. Kirk, R, Righting Wrongs 20 Human Rights Heroes Around the World (June, 2022), pp. 240 pages, Chicago Review Press, ISBN 9781641605625  [abs]
4. Kirk, R, Reflections on a silent soldier, American Scholar, vol. 88 no. 4 (September, 2019), pp. 30-40
5. Kirk, R, When the shooting stops: How transitional justice turns knowledge into acknowledgment, World Policy Journal, vol. 33 no. 3 (September, 2016), pp. 39-44, Duke University Press [doi]  [abs]

I blog and Twitter through “Talking Rights” (http://robinkirk.com). I have written journal, magazine and newspaper articles as well as opinion pieces on Latin America, U.S. immigration policy, urban and suburban life, Latinos in the U.S., human rights, international humanitarian law, drug policy, urbanization, the environment and women. My articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, the National Catholic Reporter, the American Scholar, Mother Jones, the Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Washington Times, the London-based Observer, and the Raleigh News and Observer. I have appeared on the CBS Evening News, Sixty Minutes, All Things Considered, the BBC and Bill Moyers’ Now.