Jean Robinson finished her term as Associate Executive Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in Spring 2016. Previous administrative appointments at IU include Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education (2008-10), Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs (2010-11) and Executive Associate Dean (2011-13) in the College, Interim Dean of the Hutton Honors College (2007-08), Dean for Women's Affairs (1998-2003),and Director of Women's Studies (1977-1982, 1991-92). She was a CIC Academic Leadership Fellow in 1998-99. She is recipient of the IU President's Award for Distinguished Teaching (1996), the IU Pinnell Distinguished Service Award (2007), the IUB Distinguished Service Award (2006) and seven other teaching and service awards. She received the national Pi Sigma Alpha Teaching Award in 2004.

Her research focuses on gender and inequality, including inequality in US education and same sex marriage policies cross-nationally. Her research areas have included China, Poland, France, Germany, Britain, and the US. Her most recent publications are "In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform," in Public Education Under Siege (2013, University of Pennsylvania Press) and in 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 co-authored Living Gender After Communism (2006). A founding member of 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). She has received funding from NSF, NEH, Fulbright Commission,and the Spencer Foundation. Dean Robinson was a leader of The College Board Advanced Placement Exams in Comparative Government and Politics for over 15 years. She received her B.A. at Oberlin College in Asian Studies, and an MA (1976) and PhD (1980) in Government at Cornell University.