Biography

Born and raised in North Carolina, Dr. Barry Robinson has traveled and studied extensively in Latin America and Europe. He joined the Queens faculty in 2012 and currently serves as Director of the Undergraduate Data Analytics Program and Chair of the History Department.

Dr. Robinson offers a variety of courses in Latin American and world history and also teaches in Queens’ interdisciplinary general education program. His research interests include historical geography, digital humanities, colonialism, nationalism, ethnohistory, Latin America, the Age of Revolutions, and the transatlantic slave trade. He also serves as a consultant in the areas of public history, geographic information systems, cultural resources management, digitalization, and data management. In 2017 he was the recipient of the Joseph W. Grier Distinguished Professor Award.

Dr. Robinson’s book, The Mark of Rebels: Indios Fronterizos and Mexican Independence, examines social and cultural transformations among the indigenous communities of western Mexico preceding and during the struggle for independence. He co-edited a volume on the African Diaspora in the Americas, entitled Slaves, Subjects, and Subversives: Blacks in Colonial Latin America. Dr. Robinson has also published on the role of women in Mexican independence, nineteenth-century Italian migration to Latin America, and the use of GIS technology in the teaching of history.

Dr. Robinson has led GIS-based public history projects with the Cultural Division of the Catawba Indian Nation, Aberystwyth University in Wales, and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission. In collaboration with the Commission, and with support from the North Carolina Humanities Council, he and his students created an interactive map of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor showcasing more than 200 cultural and historic sites within the corridor, with narrative context and accompanying imagery.

Dr. Robinson views teaching and learning as a conversation, and his goal in the classroom is to equip students with the means to participate more fully in the dialogue. Experiential and problem-based learning assignments often feature prominently in his courses, including role-playing simulations, archival research experiences, and mapping projects.

Education

Ph.D., History, Vanderbilt University
M.A., Latin American History, Vanderbilt University
B.A., History and Spanish, University of North Carolina, Charlotte