PCA/ACA
Keynote Speaker
PCA is excited to announce that Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman has accepted the invitation to speak at the upcoming PCA Conference (April 5-8 in San Antonio, Texas) as the 2023 Lynn Bartholome Eminent Scholar Award Recipient. The award, started in 2015, formalizes our tradition of honoring scholarly work at the PCA. Those honored are selected by a committee chosen by the President of the PCA and approved by the PCA Governing Board.
“This award recognizes Dr. Coleman’s significant contributions in education as well her extraordinary service in promoting diversity and inclusion under the umbrella of Popular or American culture.” - PCA President, Sue Matheson
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman is Vice President & Associate Provost for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, and the Ida B. Wells and Ferdinand Barnett Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. She implements diversity accountability processes by working collaboratively with Northwestern’s 12 schools and colleges on three campuses.
Previously, Dr. Coleman was on the faculty at Texas A&M University, the University of Michigan, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. At Texas A&M, she was the Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity. At Michigan, she served as the Associate Dean of Social Sciences in the Rackham Graduate School, as well as Chair of the Department of Communication Studies.
An award-winning scholar, Dr. Coleman’s research focuses on media studies and the cultural politics of Blackness. Dr. Coleman is the author of Horror Noire: A History of Black American Horror from the 1890s to Present, 2nd ed. (2023); Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present (2011) and African-American Viewers and the Black Situation Comedy: Situating Racial Humor (2000). She is a co-author of The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror from Fodder to Oscar (2023) and Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life (2014). She is the editor of Say It Loud! African American Audiences, Media, and Identity (2002) and a co-editor of Fight the Power! The Spike Lee Reader (2008). She is also the author of a number of other academic and popular publications.
Dr. Coleman is featured in, and as a co-executive produced, the critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary film Horror Noire. The film features a ‘who’s who’ cast, to include: Jordan Peele (Get Out), Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep), Ashlee Blackwell (graveyardshiftsisters.com), William Crain (Blacula), Rusty Cundieff (Tales from the Hood), Rachel True (The Craft), Ernest Dickerson (The Walking Dead), Keith David (The Thing), Mark Harris (blackhorrormovies.com) and a host of other horror stars and experts.
Dr. Coleman is completing a certificate in Leadership and Performance Coaching from Brown University/ACT. She was a Fellow in the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University. She was also a Fellow in the NADOHE Standards of Professional Practice Institute.
She earned a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. She is a graduate of the American Council on Education Leadership Academy, the University of California-Berkeley Executive Leadership Academy, and the National Intergroup Dialogue Institute.
Digital profile:
Twitter: @MeansColeman
Web: https://communication.northwestern.edu/faculty/robin-r-means-coleman/
Facebook: Robin R. Means Coleman