Directed by Professor Michael Hanchard, the Marginalized Populations project is a collaborative research initiative designed to explore political dynamics between populations with unequal, minimal or non-existent state protections and national governments. Black peoples in the Americas and other parts of the world have often lived in societies without formal rights and state protections, on a continuum of citizenship ranging from outright exclusion to full citizenship in civil societies. Scholarship and activism emanating from these communities provide opportunities for students and faculty to consider, in comparative perspective, how political actors from marginalized communities in various parts of the world make political claims, and affect national policy and human rights debates. Members of the Penn and Philadelphia scholarly community will participate in seminars, speaker series, and conferences with invited activists, scholars and policy makers from various parts of the world.