Robin Kirk

Robin Kirk serves as Faculty Co-Chair of the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute and is a founding member of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, which lifts the legacy of this Durham native to examine the region’s past of slavery, segregation, and continuing economic inequality. Kirk is a professor of the practice at Duke University and directs the Human Rights Certificate program. As a senior researcher, Kirk authored, co-authored and edited over twelve reports for Human Rights Watch from 1992-2004, all available online.

Her book for children, Righting Wrongs: 20 Human Rights Heroes Around the World, won the 2023 Foreward Reviews Silver medal for children’s nonfiction.

Kirk has published three nonfiction books on human rights as well as essays, articles, short stories, and opeds. She is the co-edit of The World Reader series published by Duke University Press and coedited the inaugural book of the series, The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics.

Kirk also writes fiction and is the author of The Bond, The Hive Queen, and The Mother’s Wheel (2022), an award-winning fantasy trilogy. Her short stories and poems have appeared in speculative fiction and other publications.

Bio updated April 2024