Dalia Gebrial

Dalia Louise Gebrial (born 19 March 1993) is an Egyptian–British political commentator, journalist, writer, activist and researcher. She is a regular contributor to left-wing alternative media organisation Novara Media, for which she presents and produces video content.[2] She has contributed to other publications such as The Guardian,[3] The Independent,[4] The Washington Post[5] and The Telegraph[6] and appeared on Sky News and BBC Politics.

Dalia Gebrial
Gebrial in 2020
Born
Dalia Louise Gebrial

(1993-03-19) 19 March 1993[1]
London, England
Alma materUniversity of Warwick
University of Oxford
London School of Economics
Known forContributor to Novara Media, PhD researcher at London School of Economics

Writing career
SubjectsDecolonisation, Marxist feminism, Gig economy, Climate justice

Gebrial is a PhD candidate at LSE researching topics of the gig economy under neoliberalism, climate justice, anti-racist social movements and the effects of gender and race on labour-based capitalism.[7]

Early life

Gebrial was born to Egyptian parents in 1993. Her father emigrated to the UK from Egypt at the age of 25.

Gebrial studied English literature at the University of Warwick and the University of Oxford before going on to study Human Geography MSc at LSE. Since September 2017, she has been studying for a PhD at LSE.

Career

In 2017, Gebrial was the editor of a special issue of the journal Historical Materialism which focuses on identity politics. Gebrial co-edited the volume "Decolonising the University", published by Pluto Press in 2018, with Gurminder K. Bhambra and Kerem Nişancıoğlu in which they discuss how colonial thinking can be challenged inside and outside the classroom across the world's universities. The book was inspired by a movement of South African students in 2015 to remove another statue of Cecil Rhodes in the University of Cape Town, drawing comparisons and contrasts with the same issue in Oxford and how colonialism is fought in a former colony or its native nation-state. Likewise, in the book, Gebrial makes the argument that "the role of the historian is to simply 'reveal' facts about pasts that are worth revealing" through the role of the institution.[8]

Political views and activities

Gebrial describes herself as being an anti-capitalist and a feminist and these two elements are interlinked. In her view, feminism cannot be compatible with capitalism.[9]

While a student at Warwick in 2013, Gebrial participated in protests against the university for its alleged links to sweatshops in the Far East and South Asia who were involved in producing branded clothing for the university. She said that her support, along with other students, was to "take a stand against the exploitation of third world workers".[10]

During her time at University of Oxford, Gebrial was involved in anti-racist activism to remove the statue venerating slave trader and British imperial officer Cecil Rhodes in 2015. Commenting on the movement, she said that "taking down the Rhodes statue would not immediately fix or reverse all of this" but that such a move would signal that the university wants to "seriously engage with this problem".[11] Similarly, Gebrial at a 2017 Oxford panel stated that the existence of the Rhodes statue at Oriel College "stands as a metaphor for the empire", for which she rejected the idea of removing it simply to create a safe space and instead to be "representative of a wider change in the university".[12] This line of activism has been expanded more broadly to what Gebrial calls "decolonising the curriculum" to remove the colonial slant that has been placed on the teaching of British history in which there is little focus placed on historic black and brown voices both within Britain and in its colonies. This was partly inspired by her experience where she says "I studied history to A-level standard and I never once engaged with the Empire" and it is this that creates a "cognitive dissonance" in the general population where "people really don't know what the realities of the British Empire were".[13] Gebrial defended the removal of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol in June 2020.[14]

From July 2016 to September 2017, Gebrial was the campaign co-ordinator of People & Planet, a student advocacy organisation focussed on creating solutions to the climate crisis across borders.

Works

Edited books
  • Gebrial, D. (2018), "Rhodes Must Fall: Oxford and Movements for Change" in Bhambra, G.K.; Nişancıoğlu, K.; Gebrial, D. (2018) eds. "Decolonising the University" (London: Pluto Press)
  • Bhambra, G.K.; Elliott-Cooper, A.; Balani, S.; Nişancıoğlu, K.; Koram, K.; Gebrial, D.; El-Enany, N.; de Noronha, L. (2021) eds. "Empire's Endgame: Racism and the British State" (London: Pluto Press)

Edited books chapters
  • Gebrial, D. (2020), "Socialist Strategy in the Age of Precarity" in Blakeley, G. (ed.) (2020) "Futures of Socialism: The Pandemic and the Post-Corbyn Era" (London: Verso)

Academic articles
  • Gebrial, D.; Kumar, A. (2016) “Atoning for the past”, Economic and Political Weekly 51(10)
  • Gebrial, D.; Kumar, A.; Sarkar, A.; Cooper, A.; Iyer, S. (2017) eds. Special Issue “The Politics of Identity”, Historical Materialism 26(2), p.3-20
  • Gebrial, D.; Kumar, A.; Elliott-Cooper, A.; Cooper, A.; Iyer, S. (2018) “Marxism and Identity Politics”, Historical Materialism 29
  • Bhambra, G.K.; Nişancıoğlu, K.; Gebrial, D. (2020) “Decolonising the university in 2020”, Identities 27(4), p.1-8 https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2020.1753415

References
  1. Davies-Kumadiro, Elizabeth (10 October 2017). "15 PoC At Oxford Give Their Advice To Freshers". Vogue. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. Novara Media. "About". Novara Media. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  3. Gebrial, Dalia (16 November 2019). "We're the black and brown women who want to unseat Boris Johnson". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  4. Gebrial, Dalia (27 March 2020). "If you don't care what happens to gig workers during coronavirus, you should – you're next". The Independent. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  5. Gebrial, Dalia (3 June 2019). "John Cleese's tweets weren't just racist. They were also based on a historical lie". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  6. Gebrial, Dalia (22 December 2015). "We don't want to erase Cecil Rhodes from history. We want everyone to know his crimes". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  7. London School of Economics. "Dalia Gebrial". LSE. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  8. Cline, Timon (13 August 2020). "The 'Critical' Threat of Missions". Patheos. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  9. Sky News (3 May 2019). "Dalia Gebrial: 'Feminism can change society for everyone'". Sky News. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  10. Coventry Live (16 August 2013). "Warwick University students in protest over uni's alleged links to sweatshops". CoventryLive. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  11. Khomami, Nadia (22 December 2015). "Oxford students step up campaign to remove Cecil Rhodes statue". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  12. Okpalugo, Ebubechi (10 August 2017). "Review: Taking the Decolonisation Project Forward Panel". Oxford Common Ground. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  13. Gilmour, Charlie (12 February 2016). "Cecil Rhodes protest: On Whitehall's 'murder mile', the Empire's heroes are steeped in innocent blood". The Independent. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  14. Sky News Daily (8 June 2020). "Anti-racism protests, the pandemic and controversial statues". Poddtoppen. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
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