Biography

Robin R. Means Coleman, PhD is a Professor of Media Studies and of African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. She is Director of the Black Fantastic Media Research Lab. An accomplished, prizewinning administrator, she has held several senior leadership positions. Before joining the University of Virginia, Dr. Coleman was the 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.

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-teacher, 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 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 co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film (2024) and Fight the Power! The Spike Lee Reader (2008). She is also the author of many other academic and popular publications.

Dr. Coleman is featured in, and co-executive produced, the critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary film Horror Noire. The film features a ‘who’s who’ cast, including Jordan Peele (Get Out), Tananarive Due (The Reformatory), 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 (The Black Guy Dies First) and a host of other horror experts.

Dr. Coleman holds a certificate in Leadership and Performance Coaching from Brown University/ACT. She completed the Foundations of Organizational Ombuds Practice training course. 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 at the University of Michigan.

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