Marco Robinson
Dr. Marco Robinson is a historian, digital humanities practitioner, archival, and qualitative methods specialist. Robinson engages in interdisciplinary approaches to using socially responsible computing methods to address issues in rural areas. Marco is an Associate Professor of History and the Assistant Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). Robinson’s most recent interdisciplinary project collaboration utilizing socially responsible computing is titled “Considering Rural Communities and Issues through Socially Responsible Computing,” funded by the Mozilla Foundation.
The project is a collaboration between the Social Sciences/Humanities and STEM (computer engineering) areas at PVAMU. The project’s pedagogical focus is to train students in socially responsible computing methods and responsible computing ethics. The practitioner components of the project provide students in both the social sciences and computer science with an opportunity to design and apply computing solutions to solve problems impacting the local community. The transformative project has produced innovative curriculum and practitioner models for learners. Most importantly, the project provides an interdisciplinary group of students with an opportunity to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to solve real-world problems.
Additionally, Robinson’s ACLS funded digital humanities project titled “Digitally Exploring the Black and Brown Experience in Texas,” employs archival and digital tools to explore the experiences of people of African and Hispanic descent in the Lone Star state. This project is a collaborative effort between Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) and Texas A&M Kingsville (TAMUK), two historically minority-serving institutions in Texas. The project focuses on bringing light to black and brown Texans’ history through exploring the rich manuscript collections, artwork, pictures, and historical artifacts housed at each institution’s archive.
Marco’s work in the digital humanities and as a documentarian can also be witnessed through his contributions to the creation of the website “From Slavery to Freedom in Texas.” The website was a collaborative effort between the University of Texas Austin and PVAMU funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The website focuses on illuminating the experiences of enslaved people in four Texas counties. Robinson is also a regular contributor to historical documentaries. He is one of the featured experts on KHOU 11’s 2021, 2022, and 2023 Juneteenth Documentaries.
His research interests include methodological approaches to working in interdisciplinary teams, best practices in implementing courses/projects dealing with socially responsible computing, the afterlives of emancipated people, the establishment of PVAMU, and life in Post-Civil War Era Texas. Robinson’s newly released book chapter “Building Sustainable Collaborations at an Historically Black College or University: Reflections on Connecting Classrooms, Archives, and Community Partners” explores effective approaches for interdisciplinary groups of researchers to engage in connecting classrooms, archives, and community partners in joint historic preservation projects. Robinson’s recent co-edited book, “Contemporary Debates in Social Justice: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Exploring the Lives of Black and Brown Americans” explores the complexities around Black and Brown communities and social justice issues.
Marco specializes in historic preservation and facilitating projects that engage in the digitization of historical pictures and documents. Robinson’s 2018 article “Telling the Stories of Forgotten Communities,” explores the efficacy of oral histories and working on collaborative teams to document the histories of black communities. Marco is a strong advocate for community studies and organizing community archives. His current writing projects deal with the impact of COVID-19 on black church congregations in Waller County, TX, the Texas Domestic Slave Trade Project, and “On the Upward Trend”: The Impact of Prairie View A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Agricultural Extension Services on Communities of Color during the Jim Crow Era in Texas- This monograph presents the history of PVAMU’s College of Agriculture—since its founding in 1879 a leader in the true land-grant tradition of academics, extension, and research—with a focus on women’s work within the program and outreach to the Latinx community in Texas during the Jim Crow era.
