Jan McGirk is an investigative journalist based in Jerusalem, where she now conducts research on conflict resolution. After gaining a degree in linguistic anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, her journalistic career led her to become a foreign correspondent for the Independent in southeast Asia and Latin America. While based in New Delhi for nine years, McGirk travelled from Bangladesh to Bhutan and profiled newsmakers, gurus and artists for international publications. She also has written extensively on human rights, sectarian violence, espionage, natural disasters, and conservation issues. The native Californian was an early advocate of ecotourism and wrote six travel guides to rural Spain, North Africa and India while on the road with her husband and two sons. Jan McGirk’s collected columns about expatriate life in the world’s mega-cities will be published soon, and she expects to complete her first work of experimental fiction in 2007.

Recent articles

Amid Israel's wider security crises, the aggravation surrounding a gay-pride march provoked fleeting religious unity and a sense of liberty besieged, reports Jan McGirk in Jerusalem.

The "theo-con" ambitions of foreign evangelicals in Israel are challenging the delicate historical balance of Jerusalem's religious communities, reports Jan McGirk.

The death of the soldier son of the prominent Israeli novelist and peace activist David Grossman symbolises the country's after-war wounds, reports Jan McGirk in Jerusalem.

People in Jerusalem are keeping a nervous eye on the "situation". But – amid thousands of evacuees from the north, the diplomatic fallout of the Qana massacre, and the distant threat of Hizbollah rockets – life in Israel goes on, finds just-arrived Jan McGirk.

Thailand's revered King Bhumibol celebrates his sixty-year reign over a people and nation worried about endemic political uncertainty, reports Jan McGirk in Bangkok.