Robin Means Coleman

Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman is the vice president and associate provost for diversity, and a professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. Dr. Coleman is charged with implementing the University Diversity Plan, thereby leading efforts in accountability, climate, and equity. She also provides strategic and scholarly leadership on practices and measures that advance diversity and inclusion progress in diversifying the faculty, staff, and student body, with an emphasis on recruitment, retention, and progression. She works collaboratively with faculty, staff, and students across Texas A&M’s 16 colleges and schools, two branch campuses, Health Science Center, and University Libraries.

She is a graduate of the American Council on Education Leadership Academy, the University of California-Berkeley Executive Leadership Academy, and the National Intergroup Dialogue Institute. Dr. Coleman was a Fellow in the Big 10 Academic Alliance Academic Leadership Program.

Dr. Coleman has earned numerous awards. She is the recipient of the John Dewey Award for undergraduate education, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Outstanding Mentor Award, and the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award from the University of Michigan, as well as recognition from New York University School of Education for teaching excellence. She also holds the Minority Access National Role Model Award. A nationally prominent and award-winning Professor of Communication and Africana studies, Dr. Coleman’s scholarship focuses on identity and media studies, and effective intercultural communication. Her current research focuses on the NAACP’s participation in media activism.

Current Work:

Robin Means Coleman's current book project considers the efficacy of the pursuit of Black respectability in media as a civil rights activism strategy. Focusing on the NAACP, she attends to how the organization handles dissonance from a variety of corners, negotiating the differing interests and goals of the organization, the public, and the media industry. Specifically, her book shows how from its early years to the present day, the NAACP's imagistic ideals for Blacks are part and parcel to its racial advancement political ideals, seeing the two as intrinsic to a push back against notions of supremacy and difference in which Blacks, at times, find themselves on the losing end of either definition.

Research Area Keyword(s):

Media studies, Black popular culture, African American studies, sexualities/gender, qualitative methods