Robbins is Chair of the Department of Humanities at the Peabody Institute[REF] and Director of the Center for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University [REF].
Robbins received a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 1990, an M.A. in English literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2003.