Meet Michelle Bachelor Robinson, Ph.D.

Biography

Michelle Bachelor Robinson directs the Comprehensive Writing Program and is an assistant professor of writing and rhetoric. Her research and teaching focus on community engagement, historiography, African American rhetoric and literacy, composition pedagogy and theory, and student and program assessment. She is the senior contributing author to Writing Guide with Handbook for OpenStax, co-editor of The Routledge Reader of African American Rhetoric, and has authored articles in The Alabama Humanities Review, Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition, the Journal of Social Work Education, and Writing Program Administration. Dr. Robinson spent the first decade of her professional life working as a secondary educator, teaching high school English literature, writing, reading, debate and drama. She uses these experiences garnered to work with College Board to serve as the co-chair for the AP and member of the CLEP test development committees. Dr. Robinson is actively involved in community research, oral history collection, and community writing and serves as a university partner and consultant for the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance, Inc., which includes several communities throughout the United States and select international spaces. Dr. Robinson has received The CCCC Research Initiative Award and an "Our Town" Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a PhotoVoice, Historiography, and Expository Writing Project she facilitated with youth in the historic Black town of Hobson City, Alabama. Most recently, she was the recipient of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Scholarly Communication Division to foster community partnerships between HBCUs and HBTSA throughout the southern region. In addition to her local work in communities, Robinson in recent years has served on the Executive Committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), Membership Director for the CCCC Black Caucus, as well as president of the Board Directors of Theatre Tuscaloosa, a community theater in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Dr. Robinson currently serves on a board of National Planners for the Zora Neale Hurston Festival (ZoraFest!), an invitation extended to academics to plan the annual conference associated with the signature event for the Eatonville, Florida community. Dr. Robinson serves in an advisory capacity for the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank, New Jersey, as well as Hiztorical Visions Productions, a nonprofit organization organized to preserve African American local history and educate the masses through uplifting historic documentaries.

Education

• Ph.D., M.A., University of Louisville

• B.A., Cameron University

Courses Taught

• First Year Composition

• The Art of Writing

• Composition Theory

• The Practicum for the Teaching Composition

• African American Language and Literacy

• African American Rhetoric

• History of Rhetoric

• Feminist Rhetorics

• Teaching African American Rhetoric

• The Rhetoric of Pedagogical Narratives in Film

Research Interests

African American Rhetoric and Literacies, Feminist Rhetorics, Community Literacies, PhotoVoice Methodologies, Black Feminist Pedagogies and Performances, and Engagement Scholarship.

Select Publications

Robinson, Michelle B., and Maria Jerskey. Writing Guide with Handbook. OpenStax, 2022.

Robinson, Michelle Bachelor. “A WPA Reflects on Assessing Black Women’s Writing during Intersectional Pandemics. WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 44, no. 3, 2021, pp. 77-81.

Robinson, Michelle Bachelor. “Writing Program Administration ‘For Us, By Us’: Two HBCU WPAs Testify.” WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 44, no. 3, 2021, pp. 23-28.

Young, Vershawn Ashanti and Michelle Bachelor Robinson, eds. The Routledge Reader of African American Rhetoric: The Long Durée of Black Voices. Routledge, 2018.

DiNatale, Leah and Michelle Bachelor Robinson. “Race, Women, Methods, and Access:
a Journey through Cyberspace and Back.” Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. 19.1 (Fall/Winter 2016): 71-92.

Robinson, Michael A., Michelle Bachelor Robinson, and Gina McCaskill. “Team-Based Learning and Social Work Education: A Pedagogical Fit.” Journal of Social Work Education. 49.7 (August 2013): 774-781.

Robinson, Michelle B. “21st Century Civility in the Wake of the Obama Presidency: A New Perspective—the Same Old Story.” Alabama Humanities Review, inaugural issue. (March, 2011).