Rachel Sullivan Robinson Interim Dean, School of International Service
- Favorite Spot on Campus
- Amphitheater
- Bio
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Rachel Robinson is the interim dean of the School of International (SIS) at American University. She has been at SIS for nearly 20 years, advancing from assistant to full professor. She joined the dean's office in 2022 as assistant dean of faculty affairs and subsequently served as senior associate dean, overseeing tenure and promotion and faculty hiring.
A sociologist and demographer, she studies organizations, development, and global health programs in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on reproductive health, HIV, and sexual and gender minority populations. She is the author of the 2017 book, Intimate Interventions in Global Health: Family Planning and HIV Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa (Cambridge University Press), and has also published in journals such as World Development, Population and Development Review, and Global Public Health. Ongoing projects in Nigeria explore citizen oversight of social protection programs and the impact of material insecurity on noncommunicable disease outcomes. Her research has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.
Robinson teaches courses on statistics, global health, population studies, and development. She received her BA from Swarthmore College, as well as dual MAs and her PhD in Sociology and Demography from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Teaching
Fall 2025
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SIS-899 Doctoral Dissertation
Spring 2026
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SIS-899 Doctoral Dissertation
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Grants and Sponsored Research
- MacArthur Foundation "Sandwich Strategies: Comparative Analysis of Institutional Change in the Global South" 2018-2021 ($500,000, co-PI Jonathan Fox)
- MacArthur Foundation "Managing the Politics of Adolescent Sexuality Education in Nigeria and Mississippi" 2012-2017 ($300,000, co-PI Jeremy Shiffman)
- Council of American Overseas Research Centers Multi-Country Research Fellowship 2009-10
- National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship, 2003-06
- National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, Graduate Training Grant, 2001-03
Selected Publications
- Robinson, Rachel Sullivan. 2017. Intimate Interventions in Global Health: Family Planning and HIV Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Brass, Jennifer N., Wesley Longhofer, Rachel S. Robinson, and Allison Schnable. 2018. "NGOs and international development: A review of thirty-five years of scholarship." World Development 112:136-49.
- Jeremy Shiffman, Michael ON Kunnuji, Rachel Sullivan Robinson, and Yusra Shawar. 2018. “International Norms and the Politics of Sexuality Education in Nigeria.” Globalization and Health 14:63.
- Robinson, Rachel Sullivan, Michael ON Kunnuji, Yusra Shawar, and Jeremy Shiffman. 2018. “Prioritizing Sexuality Education in Nigeria and Mississippi: The Importance of Local Actors, Political Opportunity, and Creative Strategy.” Global Public Health.
- Kunnuji, Michael ON, Rachel Sullivan Robinson, Jeremy Shiffman, and Yusra Shawar. 2017. “Variable implementation of Family Life and HIV Education across states in Nigeria: The Kano, Lagos and Niger examples.” Studies in Family Planning 48(4): 359-376.
- Robinson, Rachel Sullivan. 2015. “Population Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case of both Normative and Coercive Ties to the World Polity.” Population Research and Policy Review 34(2): 201-221.
- Robinson, Rachel Sullivan. 2012. “Negotiating Development Prescriptions: The Case of Population Policy in Nigeria.” Population Research and Policy Review 31(2):267-96.
- Robinson, Rachel Sullivan. 2011. “From Population to HIV: The Organizational and Structural Determinants of HIV Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Journal of the International AIDS Society 14(Suppl 2): S6.
- Robinson, Rachel Sullivan, Karen L. Kramer, and Ronald D. Lee. 2008. “Counting Women’s Labour: A Reanalysis of Children’s Net Production Using Cain’s Data from a Bangladeshi Village.” Population Studies 62(1): 25-38.
- Sullivan, Rachel. 2005. “The Age Pattern of First-Birth Rates among US Women: The Bimodal 1990s.” Demography 42(2): 259-73.
Research Interests
Dr. Robinson's research centers around three main streams. The first stream examines variation in how countries respond to health and development problems and has produced a book and numerous articles related to related to family planning, HIV prevention, and sexuality education in sub-Saharan Africa. Policies, programs, and organizations are of particular interest across these areas. The second stream investigates the origins and effects of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and asks broader questions about state-society relationships. The third stream analyzes fertility timing and outcomes.