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about gwyn kirk: biographyShort VersionGwyn Kirk is a scholar-activist concerned with gender, racial and environmental justice in the service of genuine security, peace-making, and creating a sustainable world. She has taught courses in women’s studies, environmental studies, political science, and sociology at US universities and colleges. She publishes a textbook/anthology, Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives (McGraw-Hill), co-edited with Margo Okazawa-Rey, which is used in women’s studies classes and by feminist activists. She has written widely on ecofeminism, militarism, and women’s peace organizing. She is a founding member of the East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women's Network Against Militarism, which links scholars and activists dealing with the negative effects of US military bases, budgets, and operations on local communities. She holds a Ph.D. in political sociology from the London School of Economics. Her current research and writing focuses on organizing efforts to promote cleanup and healing from contamination caused by military operations and war.
Longer versionGwyn Kirk is a scholar-activist concerned with gender, racial and environmental justice in the service of genuine security, peace-making, and creating a sustainable world. Her current research and writing focuses on organizing efforts to promote cleanup and healing from contamination caused by military operations and war. She chaired the women’s studies program at Antioch College (1992-95) and has taught courses in women’s studies, environmental studies, political science, and sociology at a range of academic institutions, including Rutgers, the University of Oregon, University of San Francisco, Colorado College, Hamilton College, and Mills College. Gwyn Kirk has published six books, including a textbook/anthology, Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives (McGraw-Hill, fourth edition), co-edited with Margo Okazawa-Rey. Now in its fourth edition, this collection is used in classrooms nationwide and also used by feminist activists. Gwyn Kirk has written widely on ecofeminism, militarism, and women’s peace organizing for academic and activist audiences. She co-authored Greenham Women Everywhere: Dreams, Ideas and Actions from the Women’s Peace Movement (South End Press 1983) with Alice Cooke. Gwyn Kirk received a Rockefeller Fellowship at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa (2002); she was a Visiting Scholar at the Women’s Leadership Institute, Mills College (2002-2003); and held the Jane Watson Irwin Chair in Women's Studies at Hamilton College (1999-2001). She is a founding member of the East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women's Network Against Militarism, started in 1997 to link scholars and activists concerned about the negative effects of US military bases, budgets, and operations on local communities, especially on women, children, and the environment. She is active in the San Francisco branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the oldest women’s peace organization, established in 1915, and now with sections in over 40 nations. She supports Health Care for All-California and the Community Food Security Coalition. She has served on the board of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) Education Fund, a national organization that seeks to empower women to act politically to reduce violence and redirect excessive military resources to unmet human and environmental needs. She holds a Ph.D. in political sociology from the London School of Economics, and a master’s degree in Town Planning from Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University) in Great Britain. Her doctoral work focused on the politics of city planning decision-making with a case study of redevelopment sites in the London Borough of Southwark, published as Urban Planning in a Capitalist Society (Croom Helm, 1980). She has also worked as a community gardener and an urban planner. |