Gabrielle (Gabby) Edelin graduated with distinction from Stanford University with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in History and Psychology. She is interested in the intersections of Black women's history, the history of the body, and transnational understandings of freedom, as well as the legal structures shaping health and civil rights in the United States and internationally. Gabrielle has been an active leader and community builder, serving three terms as Class President at Stanford, founding Stanford Stories, a community storytelling platform, and serving as Financial Secretary of her Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority chapter. She has held curatorial and research positions at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom in Tallinn, Estonia, and has worked in congressional and advocacy offices focused on civil rights and health policy.
Gabrielle is passionate about the role history plays in making people feel seen, and in building more just and caring societies. Her first independent summer research project, Unearthing Unsung Legacies, was completed in conjunction with the National Museum of African American History and Culture and examined the histories of 5 people and places in America connected to Black history that have largely remained forgotten. Her second independent research project, Freedom is a Verb, took her across three countries to interview African Americans, Estonians, and First Nations Australians about their personal understandings of the complicated meaning of freedom, in their respective countries and worldwide.
At Columbia University and LSE, Gabrielle intends to research the transnational history of freedom and the ways Black women have defined, claimed, and embodied it, building toward a legal career protecting vulnerable populations within healthcare systems.
In her free time, she enjoys traveling, exploring new cultures, and especially trying new foods. Even more, she loves to thrift and is extremely excited about all the New York fashion scene has to offer. She can often be found reading everything from Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison to When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.
