Staff and students at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies are deeply shocked and saddened by the passing of our PhD scholar Jacky Sutton. Jacky's unexplained and untimely death has been met with disbelief and great sadness.

Tributes for Jacky have been pouring in since the announcement of her death on 19 October.

Jacky was a much loved member of the Centre. She was a courageous person of great intellect and humanity. She will remain in our thoughts always.

Jacky was a highly intelligent and dedicated scholar, and experienced journalist who had worked with the BBC and many other international organisations in a number of countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan. She had joined CAIS as a PhD scholar in January 2014, and since July 2015 she was on fieldwork for her PhD in Erbil, Iraq. She was expected to return to the ANU in November 2015 to complete her dissertation by January 2017. She was not only an outstanding research scholar, but a highly valued friend and colleague who made remarkable contributions to the work and activities of the Centre. The director, all the staff and research scholars of CAIS express their sincere condolences and sympathy to her family.

A memorial and celebration of Jacky's life will be held at CAIS at 5.30pm on 24 November. Please email CAIS if you would like to attend.

"Jacky was an extraordinary friend and colleague, feminist, journalist, and peace activist, her work for various humanitarian organisations, the United Nations and most recently her genuine and tireless efforts at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, is a testament to what an extraordinary human being she was. I have looked up to Jacky as a female role model and thought she is a true activist and one of the most dedicated professionals, defendant and advocate not only of women's but also of human rights universally." Maryam Al-Khater