Author Robin Kirk: Righting Wrongs

Robin Kirk is a Faculty Co-Chair of the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute and is a founding member of the Pauli Murray Center, which  examines America’s past of slavery, segregation, and continuing economic inequality. An author and human rights advocate, Kirk also directed the Belfast program for Duke Engage, in partnership with Healing Through Remembering, an extensive cross-community project dealing with the legacy of past conflict and human rights. She is a professor of the practice in Duke’s Department of Cultural Anthropology.

In her book Righting Wrongs, Kirk introduces readers to the true stories of 20 people who invented and fought for many of the rights we take for granted.

These heroes have promoted women’s, disabled, and civil rights; action on climate change; and the rights of refugees. These advocates are American, Sierra Leonean, Norwegian, and Argentinian. Eleven are women. Two identified as queer. Twelve are people of color. One campaigned for rights as a disabled person. Two identify as Indigenous. Two are Muslim and two are Hindu, and others range from atheist to devout Christian. There are two journalists, one general, three lawyers, one Episcopal priest, one torture victim, and one Holocaust survivor.

Their stories of hope and hard work show how people working together can change the world for the better.