Joan H. Robinson JD, PhD

Joan Robinson, JD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Social Science and Law at The City College of New York, CUNY, in the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies. Her book, In Whose Hands: The Home Pregnancy Test and the Politics of Reproduction, addresses issues of surveillance and power at the intersection of science and technology studies and gender studies. 

She received her PhD in 2018 from the Department of Sociology at Columbia University, where her dissertation received the Robert Merton Award for Best Dissertation. Her publications (many peer-reviewed) address gender inequality and human rights.

Robinson was previously a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Columbia Law School, under the Eric H. Holder, Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights at Columbia University.  At the Holder Initiative, Robinson developed and oversaw curriculum, programming, and internships to bridge the gap between Columbia's Core Curriculum and students' career goals in public service and justice.  During her tenure, the Holder Initiative provided opportunities to dozens of students to pursue opportunities in a wide variety of public service and justice fields.

In law school, Robinson worked at Legal Momentum (formerly NOW-LDF) and the ACLU Women's Rights Project, where she focused on employment discrimination against women of color, and at the Safe Harbor Project and The Legal Aid Society, where she won immigration relief for victims of domestic violence. Following admission to the New York Bar, Robinson continued on at The Legal Aid Society as a Staff Attorney in both the Bronx Neighborhood Office and the Brooklyn Neighborhood Office, preventing evictions and homelessness of some of the most resilient and resourceful women and families she has ever met.

She is thankful for the privilege to be able to work in the intersection of scholarship, teaching, and the pursuit of justice.