Santa Clara University

Robin J. Hayes is a scholar and filmmaker who joined the Santa Clara University faculty as Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Political Science in 2007.  She was the first person to earn a combined doctorate from Yale University in African American Studies and Political Science.  After completing her bachelor’s degree in Metropolitan Studies at New York University with honors, she supervised a legal clinic for homeless families at the Urban Justice Center and facilitated human rights delegations and aid shipments to Cuba and Chiapas, Mexico as a national coordinator of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO).

Prof. Hayes also produced and directed Beautiful Me(s): Finding our Revolutionary Selves in Black Cuba, a documentary film about a diverse group of underdog students who journey from the ivy league to the rebel state of Cuba (www.beautifulmes.com). She has published several essays and articles about the politics of the African diaspora and social movements in global perspective and given lectures about her scholarship at the University of Chicago, Indiana University, the New School for Social Research and Middlebury College among others. In addition, she has held residential fellowships at Williams College and Northwestern University and received support for her work from the Ford Foundation.  Currently, Prof. Hayes is finishing a book manuscript, African Liberation, Black Power and a Diasporic Underground, and directing a documentary about black social movements based on interviews with African American and African activists.