RESEARCH INTERESTS: I investigate the intersection in world history of gender, empire and national security (from ancient times to current events), drawing upon a theoretical approach adapted from Cheikh Anta Diop, Louis Althusser, Antonio Gramsci, and Carl von Clausewitz.
TEACHING INTERESTS: In my classroom, I work to prepare students to become confident, competent and concerned global citizens who appreciate the long history behind current political, economic, and military events in the US and abroad. This involves developing an appreciation and respect for diversity and unity with the global human family, as well as understanding historical persons as agents of history. I rely heavily on documents, video imagery and information literacy in my classrooms to create a virtual visit to the locations that we discuss in class. I stress to my students that they are training to become leaders and opinion makers as they graduate from being passive consumers of information. My lessons include opportunities for students to develop confidence in presenting their own interpretations of history that are founded upon evidence.
EDUCATION
PhD in Women’s History, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 2006
- Major Field: Women’s History (especially African and Atlantic World)
- Minor Fields: World History, U.S. History since 1877
- Dissertation: Crossing the Straits: the Maghrib, the United States, and the Transnational Gendering of the Atlantic World before 1830.
- Dissertation Director: Professor Claire Robertson
Course work completed toward a Master of Arts in African American and African Studies,
Africa track, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 1999
MA in U.S. History, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT 1999
- Thesis: Harriet Beecher Stowe had Moorish Slippers: the Oriental Roots of Domesticity.
- Thesis Director: Professor Heather Munro Prescott
BSFS in Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 1986
- Major: International Finance and Commerce
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
- Visiting Assistant Professor, World History, Miami University-Middletown, 2013-present
- Writing Sabbatical, 2012-2013 – published 4 books. see below.
- Assistant Professor, Department of History, Otterbein University, Westerville, OH, 2005-2012
- Interim Director, Black Studies Minor Program, Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio, 2007-2009
- Instructor, Departments of African American and African Studies and of History Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1998-2005
PUBLICATIONS
Books
- Robinson, M.R. (Ed.). (2013). Purgatory between Kentucky and Canada: African Americans in Ohio. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. In paperback 2015!
- Robinson, M.R. (2012). Matriarchy, Patriarchy and Imperial Security in Africa: Explaining Riots in Europe and Violence in Africa. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
- Robinson, M.R. (Ed.). (2013). Women Who Belong: Claiming a Female’s Right-Filled Place. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. In paperback 2015!
- Robinson, M.R. (Ed.). (2012). Lesser Civil Wars: Civilians Defining War and the Memory of War. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. In paperback 2015!
Book Project/Research in Progress
Matriarchy, Patriarchy and Secure Economic Development (monograph) Tracing mid-eighteenth century political economy theory in the transition from merchant capitalism to the capitalist mode of production to sustainable development.
Peer Reviewed Articles
- “The Unfinished Project of J. J. Bachofen and the Gender Wars on the Home Front.” Swiss American Historical Review. 2015.
- “The Love Story behind the 1846 Swiss Colony in St. Clara, West Virginia.” Accepted for publication by the Swiss American Historical Review. Anticipated publication in 2015.
Book Chapters (peer reviewed)
- Robinson, M.R. (2010). Gender Wars: Patriarchy, Matriarchy and Conflicts. Toyin Falola & Raphael Chijioke Njoku (Eds.) War and Peace in Africa: History, Nationalism and the State (pp. 101-128). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
- Robertson, C.C. & Robinson, M.R. (2007). Re-modeling Slavery as if Women Mattered. Gwyn Campbell, Joseph C. Miller and Susan Miers (Eds.) Women and Slavery, Vol II (pp. 253-283). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
- Robertson, C.C., Robinson, M.R., & Corvington, N. (2004). Beyond Robertson and Klein: Re-Modeling Slavery as if Women Matter/ed. Chizuko Tominaga (Ed.) Rethinking African History from Women’s/Gender Perspectives: Slavery Colonial Experience, Nationalist Movement and After. (pp. 21-44). Osaka, Japan: Japan Center for Area Studies, National Museum of Ethnology.
Other Book Chapters
- Robinson, M.R. (2013). “Women Who Belong: Claiming A Female’s Right-Filled Place.” Marsha R. Robinson (Ed.). Women Who Belong: Claiming a Female’s Right-Filled Place (pp. 1-12). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Robinson, M. R. (2013). “Deploying Wives with the Regiment: Women’s Rights at the Restoration Garrisons of Tangier and Gibraltar, 1662-1741.” Marsha R. Robinson (Ed.). Women Who Belong: Claiming a Female’s Right-Filled Place (pp. 37-50). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing .
- Robinson, M R. (2013). “Purgatory, Prologue, and Democracy: African-American Scripts for the Second Stage of Mediterranean Social Networking Revolutions.” Marsha R. Robinson (Ed.) Purgatory between Kentucky and Canada: African Americans in Ohio (pp. 1-10). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Robinson, M.R. (2012). “Inverting History with Microhistory.” Marsha R. Robinson (Ed.). Lesser Civil Wars: Civilians Defining War and the Memory of War (pps. vii-xii). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Robinson, M.R. (2012). “Lesser Civil Wars: Civilians Defining War and the Memory of War in the Will-Memory-Will Cycle.” Marsha R. Robinson (Ed.). Lesser Civil Wars: Civilians Defining War and the Memory of War (pps. 1-11). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Review Essays
- “Albrecht Schnabel and Amara Tabyshalieva’s Defying Victimhood: Women and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding.” (United Nations University Press, 2012). African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 4, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 142-146.
- “The Bengali Cradle of Modern British Imperialism? – a Review of Partha Chatterjee’s The Black Hole of Empire: History of a Global Practice of Power. H-Empire, December 2013. https://networks.h-net.org/node/5293/reviews/6804/robinson-chatterjee-black-hole-empire-history-global-practice-power
- “New Electronic Journals and Early Pan-Africanist Dreams: An Annotated Bibliography of Select Resources in Pan-African Studies,” Journal of Pan-African Studies, 5(9) 2013, 171-187.
- “Birthing an Indigenous Islam: Carolyn Moxley Rouse’s Engaged Surrender,” Journal of African American Studies 9(1) Summer 2005, 57-62.
Non-peer Reviewed Article
- Robinson, M.R. (2006). “From Microscope to the Marriage Contract of Castile’s Trastamara Dynasts, Isabel and Fernando: Evidence of African Berber and Germanic Cultural Fusion.” African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter. December 2006, 1-24. http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/news1206/news1206.html#1.
SCHOLARLY AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
- “Correlating Black Gold Exports, Violent Misogyny and Unsustainable Development in the Eras of the Slave Trade and Petroleum,” 57th African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, November 20, 2014.
- “Blessed are the Peacemakers: the Unfinished Project of J.J. Bachofen and the Micro-wars on the Home Front,” Swiss American Historical Society Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, October 11, 2014.
- “A Review of Strategic Resource Allocation in Pre-Colonial Good Governance Models in Africa.” 7th Kenya Scholars & Studies Association Conference, University of North Alabama, September 5-6, 2014.
- Hydro-Engineering Technology Flows between West African and the West, 17th-21st Centuries. Presented at the 53rd African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 21, 2010.
- An Other’s Democratic Memory in 21st Century Somalia: African Jihads are not Asian. Presented at the Islamic Resurgence in the Age of Globalization: Myth, Memory, Emotion Conference, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, September 2009.
- Oil, Water, and African Matriarchy: Time-Tested Sustainable Development for the 21st Century. Presented at the 4th Women in Africa & the African Diaspora (WAAD) International Conference on Education, Gender & Sustainable Development in the Age of Globalization, Abuja, Nigeria, August, 2009.
- Water for Oil: Seven Lessons from the Egyptians, Garamantians, and the Sabaeans applied to China’s Harmonious World Development in Africa. Africa Conference: Science, Technology and Environment in Africa, University of Texas-Austin, March 2009.
- Cheikh Anta Diop’s Matriarcat: Fact or Nightmare? Presented at the Ohio Academy of History Spring Meeting, April 2008.
- Gender Wars and Passionate Economic Crises—Remembering Africa’s Intercontinental Empires. Presented at Wars and Conflicts in Africa Conference, University of Texas – Austin, March 2008.
- Baobab or Lotus Blossom Black Studies? Using Myers’ Optimal Thinking to Address Some Challenges at the Liberal Arts Campus. Presented at the 32nd National Council of Black Studies Conference, Atlanta, GA, March 2008.
- Crusades, Jihads, and the Mysterious Disappearance of Berbers from Medieval Spanish History. Presented at the Ohio Academy of History, April 2007.
- Ghana at 50: Gender Wars—the Last Colonial Time Bomb. Invited presentation at the 24th Annual Black World Conference, Metropolitan State College at Denver, Denver, CO, February 2007.
- Isabel and Fernando’s Moorish Marriage Contract. Presented at the Gender across Borders Conference, Brown University, May 2005.
Public Education in the Form of Newspaper Editorials
- “Nigeria’s Diezani Alison-Madueke: First Female OPEC President.” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), December 2014.
- “Can the Ohio Student Association Launch a New Freedom Movement?” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), October 2014.
- “Twenty-five Years after Glory! Honor the 54th Massachusetts Regiment,” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), September 2014.
- “Can President Obama Lead Africans to Water at the US-African Leaders Summit 4-6 August 2014?” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), August, 2014.
- “An Imitation of a Live-time (in honor of Maya Angelou),” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), June 2014.
- “To Cliven Bundy: White Supremacy’s Terrifying Expectation of Self-Annihilation,” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), May 2014.
- “Ukraine: President Obama’s Surgical Strike against Russian President Putin’s Friends,” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), May 2014.
- “Writing Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine into World History,” Middletown (Ohio) Journal-News, March 19, 2014.
- “Our Children in al-Shabaab,” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), October 2013.
- “It’s Your Business to Know African Business,” Columbus African American News Journal (Columbus, Ohio), August 2013.
Other Presentations
Robinson. M. R. (2014). Beyonce’s Feminism: The Mrs. Carter Tour, Placage and King George III’s Wife-Queen Charlotte-Sophia von Mecklengburg-Strelitz. Miami University, Middletown, Ohio, March 6, 2014.
Robinson, M.R. (2012). Rev. Alexander Crummell, Anglican Divine: His Formation and Theology. St. John’s Episcopal Church, Worthington, Ohio, January 15, 2012.
Robinson, M.R. (2011). Red Riding Hood’s Basket of Colonial Goodies—Where the Freudian Nightmares Began. History Department Faculty Lecture Series, Otterbein University, May 6, 2011.
Robinson, M.R. (2011). “We the People” of the Middle East/North Africa: Obama Democracy or Ottoman Renaissance? Faculty Scholar Series, Otterbein University, May 14, 2011.
Robinson, M.R. (2010). Petroleum, Patriarchy and Islamic Tears on Kenya’s Borders. Kenya Scholars and Studies Association 2010 Conference, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, September 17, 2010.
Robinson, M.R. (2009). Matriarchy: The Tie that Binds Shaka Zulu, Muley Ismail and Fannie Lou Hamer, Mid-American Alliance for African Studies, St. Louis, MO., October 2009.
Robinson, M.R., Snell, O., et. al. (2000). The Central Ohio Somali Initiative: Research on Race Relations, United Way of Franklin County, Ohio. In-house report. 2000.
MANUSCRIPT REVIEWER
Bedford/St. Martin, college textbook on African American history, July 2011.
Asian Women, Research Institute of Asian Women, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea, November 2011.
Second International Gender Symposium at Moi University on January, 25-27, 2012 (read December 2011).
Council of Graduate Students Manuscript Review Committee of the Graduate Quality of the University Experience Report, the Graduate School of the Ohio State University, 2001.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Courses Taught at Miami University – Middletown, Fall 2013-present
- World History since 1945
- World History since 1500
- World History to 1500
- Western Civilization since 1500
Courses Taught at Otterbein University, 2005-2012
- African Business and Labot History
- Women in the African Diaspora
- African Diaspora to 1800
- African Women and the Family
- Introduction to African History
- African Cultures and Colonialism
- The Making of Global Society to 1500
- Pan-Africanisms
- African Independence Movements: 1940s-1970s
- The Atlantic World
- Introduction to African American History
- Advanced African American History
- History Seminar/Methodology
- Introduction to Black Studies
- Issues in the Western Experience (Western Civilization I and II)
Courses Taught at the Ohio State University, 1998-2005
- Instructor, History of Modern Africa, Department of African American and African Studies
- Instructor, African Civilization to 1870, Department of African American and African Studies
- Instructor, World History to 1500, Department of History
- Instructor, World History 1500 to Present, Department of History
- Instructor, American Civilization to 1877, Department of History
- Instructor, American Civilization since 1877, Department of History
- Teaching Assistant, American Civilization to 1877, Department of History
- Teaching Assistant, American Civilization since 1877, Department of History
- Teaching Assistant, Western Civilization: Antiquity to 1700, Department of History
- Teaching Assistant, African Civilization to 1870 and from 1870 to present, Department of African American and African Studies
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
- Research travel award, Miami University, Middletown, Ohio 2014.
- Sabbatical Funding, Board of Trustees, Otterbein University, 2010
- Dean’s Travel Funds, Otterbein University, 2010, 2009
- Co-author with Jane Wu and Mary McKelvey, Faculty Development Grant, “Information Literacy in the Classroom,” 2008-2009
- Philip Poirier Award for Research in British History, The Ohio State University, 2003
- Phyllis Krumm Memorial International Scholarship for Research, Ohio State University, 2003
- Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow (Arabic Language and Culture), Middle East Studies Center, The Ohio State University, 2001-2004
- History Department Nominee, Presidential Fellowship, The Ohio State University, 2004
- Finalist, Graduate Teaching Associate of the Year (top twenty of two thousand), 2000
- Phi Kappa Phi Inductee, 2000
- Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University, 1999-2001, 2004-2005
- Graduate Teaching Associate, African American and African Studies, The Ohio State University, 1998-1999
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
- Contributing Editor, Columbus African American News Journal, Columbus Ohio, 2013-present
- Commissioning Series Editor, “Inverting History with Micro-history,” Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010-present.
- Executive Council, Ohio Academy of History, 2009-2012
- Reader, AP World History Exam, Educational Testing Services, Princeton, NJ 2011-2012
- Program Committee Chair, Ohio Academy of History Annual Meeting, 2011 and 2010∙
- Member, Program Committee, the Ohio Academy of History Annual Meeting, 2008-2009
- Panel Chair, State Formation, Security & Corruption, Kenya Scholars and Studies Association, 2010
- Convener: Congress of Ohio Pan-African Mothers, 2000. A Diaspora community group of women who addressed the incorporation of 15,000 Somali refugees in Columbus, Ohio.
RECENT PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
- African Studies Association
- International Big History Association
- World History Association
- Ohio Academy of History
- Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
RESEARCH LOCATIONS: U.S., England, Ireland, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Spain
PRE-GRADUATE SCHOOL TRAVEL: Oman, France, Italy, Mexico, Canada, England, Greece
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