Tributes paid to former UEA lecturer killed in Taliban attack

Staff and graduates have been paying tribute to former UEA lecturer Paula Kantor, who was killed in Afghanistan last week. 

46-year-old Paula Kantor – who taught in the School of International Development from 2004 to 2008 – died during a siege at the Park Palace Hotel in Kabul late on Wednesday.

She’d travelled to Afghanistan to help improve the lives of local people.

The Taliban has taken responsibility for the attack, telling media they targeted the hotel because foreigners were inside.

John McDonagh, head of International Development, described Paula as “an amazingly friendly, collegial, calm, brave and humorous person” and said: “Almost all of her work had a gender theme and she spent much of the last 10 years in Afghanistan.

“After leaving UEA in 2008, Paula directed the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit for two years, then worked for periods at the International Centre for Research on Women and for WorldFish in Penang as a senior scientist. Her latest work was with CIMMYT based in the region, working on gender and agricultural development.

“Her many colleagues at UEA grieve at this tragic loss of an exceptional friend, colleague and worker for the improvement of the lives of women and all those living in poverty in developing countries.”

PhD student Dolf te Lintelo, who had Paula as a supervisor, said: “Paula’s loss is tragic. The world has lost a champion for the cause of hundreds of millions of vulnerable and impoverished women workers labouring away in the underbelly of global capitalist value chains, unprotected by labour laws in often dangerous working conditions.”