Senior Kiara Gilbert awarded Marshall Scholarship for graduate study in the UK

Princeton senior Kiara “KiKi” Gilbert has been named a 2021 Marshall Scholar. The Marshall Scholarship seeks to promote strong relations between the United Kingdom and the United States by offering intellectually distinguished young Americans the opportunity to develop their abilities as future leaders. The scholarship covers the cost of two years of graduate study in the UK at a university of the recipient’s choice.

Gilbert, a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of 46 awardees for 2021. An African American studies concentrator who is completing a certificate in humanistic studies, Gilbert will pursue an MPhil in criticism and culture at the University of Cambridge and an MPhil in political thought and intellectual theory at SOAS University of London.

She plans to use her degrees to follow her deep passion to make both canonical and non-traditional philosophies accessible to marginalized communities. 

“I was immensely grateful and more than a little overwhelmed upon receiving confirmation of the Marshall Scholarship,” Gilbert said. “Being first-generation, low-income and a proud student activist, I know that this award comes in the midst of much hardship. I can only hope to use the Marshall and its available resources to further my commitment to justice and equity within disenfranchised communities.”