Meet Ethnic Studies Alumnae

Robin Mitchell
Class of 1998
Assistant Professor, Women's and Gender Studies

“ES gave me a theoretical framework… I had another way about understanding the world and talking about it. I asked different questions and therefore found more nuanced answers.””

Awards and honors: Spirit of Dolores Huerta Award for excellence in the field of Ethnic Studies, Spring 1998. Marion Long Stebbins Prize for outstanding promise in Dramatic Arts, Spring 1998. Reaching Beyond Award for excellence in the field of Ethnic Studies, Spring 1998. Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities - Inducted Spring 1997. Mills Undergraduate Grant: Field Research in Paris, undergraduate thesis, Winter 1997. Irvine Fellowship for Future Ph.D.'s, Stanford University, 1997. Palladium, Mills College Honor Society - Inducted Spring 1997. Semester Honors/Dean’s List - 1995-1996; 1996-1997; 1997-1998. Mary Atkins Endowed Scholarship for Academic Excellence, 1997-1998. Robert Shetterly Scholarship for Academic Excellence, 1996-1997; 1997-1998. Harry & Grace Steele Scholarship for Academic Excellence, 1996-1997; 1997-1998. Gertrude Hung Chan Award, Best Play of 1997, Mills College Drama Department, Spring 1997. Miriam F. Annis Scholarship for Academic Excellence, 1995-1996.

What are you doing now and what are the highlights of your achievements or experiences since graduation?
I received my PhD. in Late Modern European History, with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality from the Gender and Women’s Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley in 2010 and my M.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz. My dissertation was entitled:“Les ombres noires de Saint Domingue: The Impact of Black Women on Gender & Racial Boundaries in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France.” I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Program at DePaul University.

How did your Ethnic Studies degree prepare you for your current position?
ES gave me a theoretical framework. That transfers everywhere. I had another way about understanding the world and talking about it. I asked different questions and therefore found more nuanced answers.

How did being a part of the Ethnic Studies community at Mills change you?
Major personal and academic support. I didn't feel like a number. Melinda called me once when I missed class because I didn't miss class. That stayed with me the entire time. I mattered. That sentiment permeated the department. I mattered.

What life lessons would you like to offer to current Ethnic Studies majors and minors?
I am where I am because of the professors and my fellow Mills women in Ethnic Studies. Failure is easy. So is giving up. ES made me push harder and work harder and see what I could do. When I tell students that they matter, that their voice counts, I am hearing the professors from ES.

What are your future goals?
I'm living my dream!!!!!!!!!!!!