Negotiating, Constructing and Reconstructing Girlhoods

Abstract

I am honoured to have been invited to write an introduction for this special issue of Girlhood Studies commemorating the life and work of Jackie Kirk. I fi rst met Jackie at a conference in Washington in 1998. She subsequently spent several weeks at Sussex University in 2001 working on her doctorate on women teachers in development contexts. Later she contributed to several edited collections I was involved in. Her determination to work for the improvement of girls’ education in those parts of the world where access is frequently denied and where women’s lives are particularly diffi cult was very apparent. Th is belief in the possibility of change in the most desperate of circumstances and the importance of education in helping women and girls rebuild their lives in confl ict-torn countries was to cost Jackie her life in Afghanistan in August 2008. She was that rare individual—an activist and advocate as well as an academic and researcher—committed equally to the pursuit of knowledge and to action for change. Jackie believed that we can and should make a diff erence. Jackie also contributed to the inspiration behind the launch of Girlhood Studies. I hope that this special issue of the journal, which aptly refl ects numerous facets of her work, provides a fi tting, albeit small, tribute to a courageous and talented person. By bringing together a number of articles which capture the voices and experiences of girls and young women, it seeks to extend our understanding of how they negotiate, construct and reconstruct girlhood in challenging situations, whether these be as a consequence of war, violence, globalization, HIV and AIDS, or economic and social deprivation. Th is is what Jackie would have wanted. Th e issue ends with a special Celebration and Remembrance section made up of a series of short pieces, including a poem written for Jackie by Montreal poet, Charlotte Hussey, a tribute submitted by Lyndsay Bird of the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP, Paris) one of many global organizations with whom Jackie worked, two