Emma Dabiri

Disobedient Bodies Book Club: Black Feminism Reimagined After Intersectionality by Jennifer Nash

The next book we are going to read in DB book club is Feminism Reimagined which I'm currently reading myself. I know it sounds v. niche but honestly this is a must read for everybody ! Black Feminism Reimagined After Intersectionality is a groundbreaking text, -and with the ubiquity of intersectionality today- I cant overstate how important both the questions it addresses as well as the nuanced answers it provides, are ! 

In Black Feminism Reimagined After Intersectional...

Disobedient Bodies Book Club Conversation with Symeon Brown author of Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy

Exclusive recording of book club chat for Patreons 

Would love to hear your thoughts and keep the conversation going x

Disobedient Bodies Book Club In-Conversation with Get Rich or Lie Trying author Symeon Brown Tonight

Hello lovelies

Just a lil reminder about this live tonight at 8pm and an opportunity to give you first dibs on any questions that you might have for Symeon.  If you have anything you want to ask him, let me know as soon as possible but totally cool to just ask directly tonight as well. 

This will be an Instagram Live conversation on my Emma Dabiri account. I will be recording it so if there is anyone who doesnt have or cannot access instagram there should be a recording!...

Disobedient Bodies Book Club April 27th

Hi everyone, 

I hope you are well. As promised I am starting up Disobedient Bodies again and our first book with be Channel 4 Investigative Journalist Symeon Brown's Get Rich or Lie Trying described as a new cutting exposé of the influencer economy.  

I'm also delighted to share that Symeon will be joining me in conversation, so that you can speak to him directly about the book yourself !

Get Rich or Lie Trying: 

Well-researched, qui...

New Literary Courses and the Return of Disobedient Bodies Book Club

Hello everybody

I wanted to pick up more regular communication again, now that I’m more settled, and increasingly feel like sharing less and less of my thoughts and ideas on social media, particularly Twitter.

I’m in the US at the moment, where I have been appointed to a position called the Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies. As part of my role I am teaching a couple of comparative literature courses. The first is writing creative non-fiction for change, while the second is looki...

The enclosures, Ireland, colonialism.

The following is from an early draft of WWPCDN. There was a lot that didnt make the final edit as I was way over the word count. But I'm sharing it in light of the UK MPs Report that links the increased use of the term 'white privilege' with the adverse material conditions of the 'white working class' rather than engaging with the fact that the exploitation, impoverishment and disenfranchisement of the working class is  centuries old and a key feature of the British class system. The rel...

Irish and Black Solidarity - Unpublished excerpts from What White People Can Do Next

Hi everyone, 

WWPCDN is way over the original word count, and even so, I had to lose lots of text as earlier drafts were way way way over! But I'd love to share some of that material with you here. 

 Ok first up we have this lil section on Irish and black points of solidarity, which I love.

Do let me know your thoughts ! 

It's not about shirking the reality of the past but neither is it about remaining mired in it either. This history and its legacy...

Upcoming April events

Hola lovelies 

A selection of events I'm doing in April. Do let me know if you'll be attending and I'll say hi!

April 1st https://membership.theguardian.com/event/what-white-people-can-do-next-with-emma-dabiri-142843917001

April 8th 2021-03-24 22:33:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Update March 21st

Hola everybody

It’s been a hot minute but the last two weeks have been absolutely mad ! Still I’m back now, WWPCDN is out in 1.5 weeks, the US edit is almost finished and the audiobook is recorded. Whoop whoop! 

I went waaaay over the word count, so I’ll be sharing lots of the stuff I couldnt fit in, over here! There’s quite a bit about the colonisation of Ireland, the theft of the land, the enclosures, all that good stuff !

I also started the D...

Weekly Update February 24th

Whoop whoop whoop. Spring has sprung!!! Anyone else feeling a long overdue pep in their step with the novelty of sunshine? ( I dunno you’re probably not all on a mostly grey lil isle, so you might have different relationship to the seasons ) but boy what a difference the sun's rays make .

And the announcement that UK lockdown is ending June 21st too is pretty exciting (although when you think about it that’s actually mad, given we’ve been in this one alone since Decemeber, but hey...

Happy Birthday Frederick Douglass !

Happy Valentines Day beloveds.

Is it as cold where you are as it is in the UK? My word, it is Baltic! The flipping sea froze for the first time in like half a century. I didn’t see it myself but it sounds kinda extraordinarily beautiful.

One of the many mad developments to come out of this wild year has been my reconfiguration of my relationship with the cold. I have historically detested it. I used to find it a peculiarly unique type of cruelty that of all the many cli...

Celebrating the Legacy of Frederick Douglass: an Iveagh House Lecture

Hey beauts, 

This is happening tomorrow night 7-8pm if ye fancy it. 

Keynote from Professor Stevenson 

who is 'hailed by Desmond Tutu as "America's Mandela", Professor Stevenson has devoted his life to fighting injustice, racism and discrimination in America. He is the founder of Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organisation which has won major challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent prisoners and aiding children pr...

TV and Academia Edinburgh Keynote

Hey beauties,

How are you all? I wanna say ‘roll on March /April but I’m actually very reluctant to put a date on things. There have been so many false alarm ‘it’ll be ‘back to normal by…..’ over the last year, and here we are, the best part of a year later, still in lockdown!

Early on in this, I had prepared myself for it being a long ass ting, so I was sort of resigned to the world pausing for a bit, and hadn’t pinned my hopes on any of the promises of ‘by Summ...

Edinburgh TV Festival

Hello beloveds, 

As you may well know my work sits across both academia and TV (as well as other intersections).  As such I have been invited to give the keynote speech at the Arts and Humanities TV festival (a charity initiative that is part of the Edinburgh Festival) https://www.thetvfestival.com/talent-schemes/ahtv/

We are recording  tomorrow for broadcast later in the week...

The Gaze

Hey gang, 

I hope this week has treated you well! 

WWPCDN is in its final stages before print, I've been working on little tweaks all weekend. Instead of  the weekly round-up this evening, I'm going to share a piece I wrote on beauty and the gaze. I ended up having to rewrite it completely as it drew too much on philosophy, art history and African Studies for the publication but I far preferred the original which I share with you now. 

Hope you enjoy. Wou...

Weekly update January 18th (by the skin of its teeth) Ok lets call it 19th!

How are you beloveds?

I submitted the draft of my book for proofs (galleys) on Friday and then re-wrote a section over the weekend and re-submitted again this morning! Whoop. So I’m now free…. to catch up on everything I have let stack up while I’ve been writing it….

Still struggling to make sense these ‘interesting times’ we’re in. I miss boring times. I mean the days are generally boring as hell but the events seem seismic.

Last week Ireland saw the publicati...

2021 WTF

Welcome back my loves. 2021 started off with a bang ! Where to begin? Does anyone remember an episode of Charlie Brookers end of year Screenwipe where he discussed what a nutso year it had been, and the way there were all these major cataclysmic events happening every few weeks that in the past would have been the biggest news story of the year but were happening with such regularity that we were becoming overwhelmed. Off the top of my head I think it was around 2016 but it might hav...

Weekly Update December 21st : The season finale !

 As basketcase Britain goes into free fall, it seems appropriate that we enter into the longest night of the year with a cosmological event that hasn’t been seen since the Middle Ages, 800 years ago! Tonight the two largest planets in our solar system; Jupiter and Saturn, will nearly overlap to form a double planet. This  is an exceptionally rare sighting called the Great Conjunction and feels suitably dramatic for the way events seem to be unfolding. The thing is though, I suspec...

Extra Round Up December 17th

What's up my peeps?

Just a lil extra note this week ahead of Sunday cos the previous one was so scant. WWPCDN is back with my editor and I’m awaiting her comments tomorrow which is always ever so slightly nail biting ! Like I said, its way over the word count, so whatever doesn’t make the final edit for the sake of space, Ill share on here. I remember when I was a masters student, I found cutting my work down SO difficult, but TIMES. HAVE. CHANGED. I actually love taking the cutting...

Weekly Round Up December 14th

Beloveds, 

Forgive me, its a quick one today! Round two of my WWPCDN manuscript was due Friday and guess who still hasn't sent it - insert sweating emoji face. 

However at this stage its almost 10k over the word count haha so you can expect those outtakes on here ! 

I have lots of thoughts I want to share, so Ill do a lil extra midweek round up, later in the week to make up for the brevity of today 

Take care of yourselves x

Weekly round-up December 7th

Hey peeps.

Bare with my timekeeping and refer back to my arguments regarding the 'managing' of time  in chapter 2 of Don't Touch My Hair (hahaha can I get away with that ?!) 

Recently, I’m feeling a huge shift in my work. For quite a while I’d been feeling frustrated because it seemed an almost impossible task to translate some of the more complex ideas -the stuff that really excites me, and that forms the theoretical underpinning of my thesis – ways of engaging di...

What White People Can Do Next update

Just swinging by with a lil update. So at 3am this morning, I finished the manuscript for WWPCDN (upon which my youngest son, promptly woke up and cried until around 5am! of course). So while I'm feeling delirious (I then had a day of voice overs for series 5 of Britains Lost Masterpieces - we're back babyyyyyyy) I'm  also feeling a HUGE sense of relief and cannot wait to share this work with you. 

I'll be back on Sunday with more news,  as well as info about disobedient ...

Weekly roundup

Lets face it, the Friday round up is a Sunday round up !

The response to my book cover has been phenomenal – thank you so much for all your feedback.

This week saw the Home Office double down on their decision to deport 50+ people to Jamaica just before Christmas, in the middle of a global pandemic. Many of these people have been in the UK since childhood, but will be deported to Jamaica next Wednesday, where they may no longer have any connections. Under current laws, foreign n...

TA-DA Sneak peek !

Hey folks 

What I'm writing is full of surprises so I imagine the cover is slightly unexpected as well lol. 

You guys are literally the first people to see it, so please don't share anywhere until after it goes live on my socials later in the week, in the meantime thoughts please... 

Big love x

Weekly roundup ( I know its not Friday but do days even matter anymore?)

Hey famz, 

I hope you're all well. 

I think some of you were at the Dingle Lit session today so thanks for dropping by. If you wanted to ask me a question and didn't get a chance you can holla on here. I loved discussing The Vanishing Half with Brit. I'm thinking of doing it as a disobedient bodies book club pick and inviting her to join us in the new year. Roll on 2021 whaaaa'

This week I have been mostly trying to finish my first draft of WWPCDN. No matt...

Catch Up

Hello there, 

Gosh I've missed a couple of weekly round ups so my apologies for that. I actually really like doing 'em but trying to meet my deadline for What White People Can Do Next (the end of this month eeeek), being in this second lockdown while looking after two nippers and juggling all my other work, well ITS A LOT! Anyway I've been promised the final edit of the cover for WWPCDN this week, so will share it here first and would ABSOLUTELY love and value your feedb...

Non election/lockdown related post we'll get to that tomorrow

Hey peoples, 

Did any of you see my C4 hair doc Hair Power; Me and My Afro that was broadcast last week? Its up on 4OD for those in the UK who feel so inclined. Here's some behind the scenes shots from on set..

Wow fireworks going off like mad in the background, who else can hear 'em? feels suitably apocalyptic for the day thats in it !  

Stay safe beloveds 

Weekly Round-Up. October 31st

Oíche Shamhna - Happy Halloween in Irish for those of you not familiar with the language!

Did you know that Halloween originates from Ireland and was exported to the world via the USA following the mass migration of Irish to the States during the mid 1800s as the result of the Famine. The turnips that were traditionally carved were in short supply in the new environment but pumpkins were plentiful, and their use in America was the beginning of one of the core traditions of the...

Weekly round up October 16th

What a week, and saying that in 2020 is quite something! But with the tier 2 announcements and the No deal Brexit bombshell, it really is quite something.

What are you doing to cultivate joy? For me it’s family, reading, meditation and flowers. I’ve bought bundles of dried flowers; daisies and heather mostly and they are so joyous to look at. I love flowers, rocks and stones a great deal, and am often reminded of the Alice Walker poem when looking at them:

We alone can devalue...

Round up of the week !

I was thinking that a round up of the week every Friday might be nice. A brief reflection on current affairs / what I've been up to, something of that nature. 

This week has been an incredibly busy one for me. Black History Month is in full swing  and I don't think I've ever seen one that has been as big as it this year, it's also worth noting that we now have Black History Month in Ireland. MY GOD! TIMES HAVE CHANGED! 

I got home late last night, was making a cup o...