Hilary Robinson

Professor of Art, College of Fine Arts

Bio

Hilary Robinson is very passionate about the role of the arts in society,” said Mark Kamlet, provost of Carnegie Mellon. “She has done a wonderful job building relationships abroad and throughout the United States. We have great confidence she will lead the college in an exciting new direction in its centennial year, following the legacy of Martin Prekop.”

Trained as a painter in the 1970s, Robinson spent many years working as an artist and as afreelance arts administrator, critic and lecturer. Her past employment includes gallery work at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London and at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow, Scotland; research and development work for an Art in Public Places agency; and co-authoring “The Rough Guide to Venice.”

In the 1980s she received her M.A. at the Royal College of Art, London, gaining the Allan Lane award for the Outstanding Contribution to Cultural Theory; and in the 1990s she earned her Ph.D. at the University of Leeds on the implications for art practices of the work of French philosopher Luce Irigaray.

Robinson’s own research is in the field of contemporary art theory. Her first anthology was “Visibly Female” in 1987 (Camden Press); she published “Feminism-Art-Theory 1968-2000” (Blackwells) in 2001 and this year will see publication of the monograph, “Reading Art, Reading Irigaray: the Politics of Art by Women” (IB Tauris). She has published 16 refereed essays in edited collections and journals and delivered refereed conference papers and convened panels at more than 18 conferences, including the College Art Association (CAA), the American Society for Aesthetics and the Association of Art Historians. She has published widely in catalogues and in professional magazines.