Robbin Chapman
Associate Provost and Academic Director of Diversity & Inclusion, and Lecturer of Education

Associate Provost Chapman has been at Wellesley College since 2011 where she provides strategic leadership and vision for the College’s diversity and inclusion, and academic and faculty excellence initiatives, and is a Lecturer in the Education Department.

 

 

Dr. Chapman and colleagues Robin Cook-Nobles, director of counseling services and dean of the office of intercultural education, and Carolyn Slaboden, assistant vice president for human resources, comprise the Partnerships for Diversity & Inclusion, to advance equity efforts across the campus. Dr. Chapman works to advance faculty development and student achievement, collaborates with departments on faculty searches, and handles special projects on behalf of the provost's office.

 

Dr. Chapman teaches a design-focused course, Learning and Teaching in a Digital World, that challenges students to re-imagine how learning flourishes in partnership with digital technologies. Her students have presented their projects at various conferences, including the College's Digital Scholarship Day and Rulhman conference. . Her students have presented class projects at various conferences, including the College's Digital Scholarship Day. She and her students have been recognized by the College's Spotlight on Teaching series.  Dr. Chapman will serve as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for a 2018 to 2020 term.  Sigma Xi is the international honor society of science and engineering whose members' research spans the disciplines of science and technology.  

 

Dr. Chapman earned her S.M and her Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she conducted research at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the MIT Media Laboratory. Her research interests include design and use of computational tools for learning in public spaces, and examining equity issues as they relate to learning technologies and culturally-responsive pedagogy. Her publications include the book, The Computer Clubhouse: Constructionism and Creativity in Youth Communities and chapters in Social Capital and Information Technology, Falling for Science: Objects in Mind, Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators, The Wiley Handbook of Learning Technology, Bravery: African-American Women Scholars in the Academy (in press), and Injecting Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Race and Gender for Diversification in STEM (in press). 

 

Dr. Chapman currently serves on a number of boards and is regional liaison for the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program, administered through the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Education department faculty profile