Marc Ridgell (they/them) is a William Fontaine Fellow and PhD Student in Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Marc welcomes all prospective student inquiries, especially from students of color and first-generation/low-income students.
Marc graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in 2023 with their A.B. in African and African American Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. At WashU, they were a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and Point Foundation Scholar, as well as completed research fellowships through the Leadership Alliance and Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute.
Marc is interested in how Black LGBTQ+ communities respond to and mobilize against forms of structural inequality, policing, and gentrification in the neoliberal city. They are interested in critical ethnographic, archival, and GIS mapping methodologies. Since starting at Penn, Marc's studies and research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Penn's Price Lab.