Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country. His work, which covers topics such as hip-hop culture, politics, sexuality, education and religion, has appeared in numerous journals, magazines, books, and anthologies. Dr. Hill has lectured widely and provides regular commentary for media outlets like NPR, Washington Post, Essence Magazine, and New York Times. He is currently a political contributor for Fox News Channel, where he appears regularly on programs such as The O’Reilly Factor, Huckabee, and Hannity. Prior to joining Fox News, Dr. Hill was a regular guest on CNN, MSNBC, and CourtTV. A nationally syndicated columnist, his writing appears weekly in Metro Newspapers. His award-winning daily blog is updated on his website, www.MarcLamontHill.com.

Since his days as a youth in Philadelphia, Dr. Hill has been a social justice activist and organizer. He is a founding board member of My5th, a nonprofit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. Dr. Hill also works closely with the ACLU Drug Reform Project, focusing on drug informant policy. In addition to his political work, Dr. Hill continues to work directly with African-American and Latino youth. In 2001, he started a literacy project that uses hip-hop culture to increase school engagement and reading skills. He also continues to organize and teach adult literacy courses for high school dropouts in Philadelphia and Camden. In 2005, Ebony Magazine named him one of America’s top 30 Black leaders under 30 years old. In Fall 2009, he joined the faculty of Columbia University as Associate Professor of Education at Teachers College. He also holds an affiliated faculty appointment in African-American Studies at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University.

Dr. Hill is the author of Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy, and the Politics of Identity and the co-editor of Media, Learning, and Sites of Possibility and The Anthropology of Education Reader. He is currently completing two manuscripts: Knowledge of Self: Race, Masculinity, and the Politics of Reading; and You Ain’t Heard It From Me: Snitching, Rumors and Other People’s Business in Hip-Hop America. Trained as an anthropologist of education, Dr. Hill holds a Ph.D. (with distinction) from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the intersections between youth culture, identity, and educational processes. He is particularly interested in locating various sites of possibility for identity work, resistance, and knowledge production outside of formal schooling contexts. Particular sites of inquiry include hip-hop culture, urban fiction, and African-American bookstores.