Jacqueline Roddick; born July 3, 1946, died July 20, 2000
Jacqueline graduated from Queen's University, Ontario, obtained the First Year Prize in Sociology at the London School of Economics, and gained a Masters and a PhD at the University of Sussex.
She was for many years a research fellow at the Institute of Latin-
American Studies at Glasgow University. In Glasgow, and at Stirling and Aberdeen Universities, she taught Honours students the sociology of development.
Dr Roddick was internationally-renowned in the development and contemporary politics of Latin American societies, with particular concern for Chile and Argentina. She and her husband, Philip O'Brien, were frequent visitors to Latin America, where they undertook extended research. The books she wrote about Chile included, most prominently, Chile: The State and Revolution (translated into Spanish), Allende's Chile, and, more recently, The Dance of the Millions - Latin-America and the Debt Crisis (translated into Chinese), alongside numerous articles.
Jackie Roddick was unusual among scholars by dedicating herself to bringing together theory and practice. When the Pinochet coup took place, Jackie and her husband made room in their house for many refugees, some not just for months but for years. Those guests and many other Chileans honoured her memory through Latin-American music and poetry at her funeral.
Jackie committed herself to the struggles for democracy and human rights in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. She played a leading role in the Chilean Solidarity Campaign, the Argentine Human Rights Campaign, and in organisations to help street children in Brazil. She campaigned on ecological issues, supporting the Scottish Green Party, and playing a pivotal part in the Non-Governmental Organisations to help establish the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development after the Rio Conference. In the British Miners' Strike she provided sustenance for Ayrshire miners and their families. In later years, at the time of the founding debates for the Scottish Parliament, she championed The Women's Claim of Right (subsequently published in 1991 as a Polygon volume) and through this, the goal of making women more visible historically.
After the closure of the Latin-American Institute and with research still very much in her lifeblood,
Jackie moved to Edinburgh University where she continued to write articles. Her erudition and her self-denying social action were her most remarkable traits but she was also distinguished by her love of literature and her good humour.
She leaves Philip, a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Glasgow University, and two sons, Brendan and Ruari. At a time when there are marked pressures to conduct research for instrumental reasons and when, conversely, practical action is all too often divorced from learning, Jackie aspired to combine together the best traditions of social science and politics as vocations.
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