Jean C. Robinson
Professor; Executive Associate Dean of the College

Kirkwood Hall 104 | (812) 855-2149 | Send Email

Vita

Professor Robinson is interested in social change and social movements, especially those movements that are directed at achieving greater levels of equality among people. Currently she is completing a project examining framing debates among Americans over equality in education in programs such as Title IX and equalization of funding. The collaborative project with Law Professor Julia Lamber and Sociology Professor Pamela Barnhouse Walters was funded by The Spencer Foundation and has supported a number of graduate students in Political Science, as well as in Sociology and Law.

Originally, Professor Robinson was trained as a comparativist at Cornell University and did research on contemporary China. From that early focus, she extended to other (now former) communist countries (especially Poland), and then to Western Europe (primarily France.) She has also done work on feminist political thought and equality.

Professor Robinson’s most recent publications are "In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform," Dissent (2011); “Democracy, Discursive Frames and Same-Sex Unions: A Cross-National Analysis,” in Same-Sex Marriage in the Americas: Policy Innovation for Same-Sex Relationships, (2010) and “Women’s and Gender Studies,” in Barbara J. Bank, ed, Gender and Higher Education (2011) . She and Janet E. Johnson (IU Political Science Ph.D.) co-edited Living Gender After Communism (2006). As a founding member of the international research group RNGS (Research Network on Gender, Politics and the State) she contributed to Comparative State Feminism (1995) and to Abortion Politics, Women's Movements, and the Democratic State (2001). Professor Robinson was editor of Women and Social Policy: From Local to Global (NWSA Journal, 2001) and has also published articles on social policy, gender, and equality in edited volumes and journals such as The China Quarterly, Policy Studies Review, Polity, Asian Survey, and Comparative Education Review. Other research includes collaborative work on Women in Information Technology, with publications in Women’s Studies, Journal of Educational Computing Research, Gender & IT, and Women and Information Technology.

She has received two NSF grants as well as funding from other major federal agencies. She has been involved in the development of the Advanced Placement Exams in Comparative Government and Politics, having served as chair of that program from 1996-99 and then as chief of the grading process for the AP Exam in Comparative Government and Politics.

Professor Robinson is recipient of the Indiana University President's Award for Distinguished Teaching (1996), of the George Pinnell Distinguished Service Award (2007), and of eight other teaching and service awards. She received the national Pi Sigma Alpha Teaching Award in 2004. Professor Robinson was Director of Women's Studies (1977-1982, 1991-92) ,Dean for Women's Affairs (1998-2003) and Interim Dean of IU’s Hutton Honors College (2007-08). She also has served in multiple leadership positions in the department.

Professor Robinson is not currently teaching; she is serving fulltime as Executive Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences.