Marquis Palmer studied Philosophy at Hamilton College, graduating in 2018 with Hamilton’s highest honor, the James Soper Merrill Prize. For his senior project, he produced a 4-song educational rap EP that offered a phenomenological account of nihilism and hope in relation to anti-black racism. As a 2018-2019 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, he traveled to Germany, Brazil, South Africa, Mozambique, and Greece to explore skateboarding as a tool for social change in marginalized communities. Currently a criminal defense investigator in a public defense office in Brooklyn, Marquis will study political theory at SOAS, University of London. He is passionate about social justice, re-imagining American criminal justice, and philosophy as praxis.