Salma Moustafa Khalil

Salma is a researcher, editor, archivist and translator. Her work is at the intersection of ethnography, sociology, and political philosophy, with a focus on political mobilisation and knowledge production. A PhD Candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Manchester her research examines Arab diasporic artistic and intellectual activism in Berlin and London. Salma is Editorial Assistant at the LSE Middle East Centre. Her independent translations have appeared in publications including the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

PhD research Project Title: 

Arab Artistic Activism in Diaspora: The Double-Agents of Representation and Transnational Solidarity

Summary: This project examines how Arab artists and curators in London’s diaspora use artistic and curatorial practices as political activism. Through ethnographic fieldwork with different curatorial oganisations, I explore how aesthetic choices of Arab artists and curators contest authoritarianism, assert diasporic identity, and build transnational solidarities. Combining anthropology of art, migration, and activism, I investigate how Arabness is curated as spectacle and how artists act as organic intellectuals mediating politics and aesthetics.