Robert Hall nontraditionally earned his A.A. at UW-Waukesha before transferring to UW–Madison and becoming a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. He was justice-impacted, first-generation, and faced housing instability, yet successfully navigated distinct B.S. majors in evolutionary genetics and policing history. Robert concurrently studied abroad in Ghana and Costa Rica, researched at Caltech, and started Liberated Intellects, a project to help formerly incarcerated people gain education. Upon graduation he researched all summer at the NIH in Maryland. Now pursuing a biology Ph.D. at Stanford, Robert will reformat Liberated Intellects to mirror his love of biology by creating mentoring and research opportunities with people who confronted various instabilities (homelessness, incarceration, refugee camps, etc.). Extrapolating from his experiences, he aims to learn more about sovereignty, representation, and institutional limits on these concepts. Robert is grateful for honors like the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Adam Smith Fellowship, Amgen Scholarship, and Gilman Scholarship.

The Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series is a biweekly program on Alcatraz Island that lifts up and highlights the voices of people who have spent time inside of jails and prisons. The National Park Service believes in parks as platforms for dialogue, and Alcatraz Island, being one of the only NPS sites that interprets mass incarceration, works directly with people who have been affected in order to give them a platform to showcase their stories.

Speaking event starts at 1 PM in the Cellhouse Dining Hall.

For more information on the Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series,or other community outreach initiatives (including ranger-led programs), please contact park ranger Oliver Goodman (oliver_goodman@nps.gov). If you are a community leader working with the formerly incarcerated community and you would like to bring a group to an upcoming program in the series, please email Oliver. If you have any accessibility needs such as ASL translation, please contact goga_accessibility@nps.gov at least 5 days in advance.

Seating is first come first serve. Your island ticket is sufficient for admission, reservations are not required. Seating may be limited.