Tony Robinson lectures in Korea during a recent study abroad trip.
Chair - University of Colorado Denver Political Science Department • Associate Professor
Political Science
tony.robinson@ucdenver.edu
303-315-1763

Physical Office Location: Student Commons Building, Office #3228
1201 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80204

Spring 2020 Office Hours: 

Tuesdays 11:00-12:30 and Thursdays  2:00-3:00.*

(*Please note: I have administrative appointments with the university that sometimes will cause conflicts with these announced office hours. I am generally in office, Monday-Thursday during normal work hours with the door open.  If my door is open, please feel free to drop by to discuss any academic matters.)

Expertise Areas:

American political institutions Poverty and politics Urban politics American political thought CU in the Capitol Grassroots empowerment and social movements.

Dr. Tony Robinson received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, with an emphasis on the challenges of inner-city poverty and how grass-roots community organizing can address those challenges. At CU Denver, he specialized building connections between the resources of the university and surrounding urban communities. 

Robinson's community connections over the years included:

  • Serving as the former director of a HUD-funded Community Outreach Partnership Center, uniting university resources with Denver’s low-income Westside communities.
  • Running for Denver City Council (At-Large)

  • Serving as the co-founder of groups such as Denver’s El Centro Humanitario (an immigrant worker advocacy center) the Save Our Section 8 Low Income Tenants Organization, and the Denver Tent City Initiative (a homeless grass-roots advocacy coalition).

  • Serving as a board member for Denver Jobs With Justice, the Hangout Resource Center for people lining with Brain Injuries, and the El Centro Humanitario immigrant rights center.

As a teacher, Robinson directs the CU in the Capitol legislative internship program, coordinates student research internships with a variety of community groups, teaches a study abroad summer session in South Korea, and a GIS in Political Science course teaching students to use the sophisticated computer mapping abilities of CU Denver’s Facility for Advanced Spatial Technologies as a research method.

Robinsons’ research interests include American elections, urban political economy, and political-economic mapping projects.

Ph.D., 1994, University of California-Berkeley

Tony Robinson received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, with an emphasis on the challenges of inner-city poverty and how grass-roots community organizing can address those challenges. At UC Denver, Robinson has specialized building connections between the resources of the university and surrounding urban communities. Robinson’s community connections over the years included:

  • Serving as the former director of a HUD-funded Community Outreach Partnership Center, uniting university resources with Denver’s low-income Westside communities.
  • Running for Denver City Council (At-Large)
  • Serving as the co-founder of groups such as Denver’s El Centro Humanitario (an immigrant worker advocacy center) the Save Our Section 8 Low Income Tenants Organization, and the Denver Tent City Initiative (a homeless grass-roots advocacy coalition).
  • Serving as a board member for Denver Jobs With Justice, the Hangout Resource Center for people lining with Brain Injuries, and the El Centro Humnaitario immigrant rights center.

As a teacher, Robinson directs the CU in the Capitol legislative internship program, coordinates student research internships with a variety of community groups and co-teaches the Berlin study-abroad program, focusing on the architecture, design and spatial politics of one of the most dynamic cities in Europe. Robinson's teaching interests also include courses in urban politics (with and emphasis on Denver affairs), traditional American politics courses (especially emphasizing elections courses where students conduct their own exit polls), and a GIS in Political Science course teaching students to use the sophisticated computer mapping abilities of UCD’s Facility for Advanced Spatial Technologies as a research method.

Robinsons’ research interests are in American elections (including publishing text books that track campaigns and elections in real-time as the unfold), urban political economy (including publishing several community based research projects on such topics as challenges facing low wage domestic workers, and innovative local development strategies to secure better wages and affordable housing), and political-economic mapping projects (such as his two volume Denver political economy atlas). Some of this research work can be found through the Front Range Economic Strategy Center.

2010 Robinson, T. and Noriega, S., Voter Migration as a Source of Electoral Change in the Rocky Mountain West. Political Geography. 29(1): 28-39.

2011 Robinson, T., The Changing Electoral Landscape of the Rocky Mountain West, in The 2008 Election Atlas (ed. Stan Brunn). Rowman and LittleField. Forthcoming.

2010 Robinson, T., Dryden, J. and Gomez-Duplantis, H. On the Job with Domestic Workers: Workplace Abuse and Worker Exploitation in Colorado's Invisible Workforce. With funding by Women's Foundation of Colorado.

2008 Robinson, T. The 2008 Presidential Campaign Workbook. Pearson/Longman: New York.

2008 Robinson, T. The First 100 Days. Pearson/Longman: New York.

2008 Robinson, T. with Gray, C. The Denver Atlas II: A Region in Transformation (50 page color Atlas of Denver regional political-economy). The Colorado Community Organizing Collaborative. www.fresc.org/

2007 Rinehart, T. and Robinson, T. El Centro Humanitario (40 page "diarist project"/oral history on Denver's center for undocumented day laborors). Published for the Fifth Anniversary celebration of El Centro Humanitario.

2006 Robinson, T., The Denver Atlas II: A Region in Transformation (60 page color Atlas of Denver's Political-Economy). The Colorado Community Organizing Collaborative. www.fresc.org/

Robinson, Anthony (2004) Hunger Discipline and Social Parasites: The Political Economy of the Living Wage, Urban Affairs Review. November.

Robinson, Anthony (2003) Inner City Community. International Encyclopedia of Community, 2003. Robinson, Anthony

(2001) Dare the School Build a New Social Order? Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. Winter.

Robinson, Anthony (2001) Out of the Soup Kitchen, Into the Streets: Radical Service Learning. In: DiPadova, L. (ed.) Service Learning Across the Disciplines: Public Administration and Non-Profit Management. Washington, DC: American Association of Higher Education.

Robinson, Anthony (1999) Saving the World (But Without Doing Politics): The Strange Schizophrenia of the Service-Learning Movement.  Academic Exchange Quarterly. Winter.

Robinson, Anthony (1996) Spacial Practices. In: Liggett, H. and Perry, D.(eds.) Urban Affairs Review 33: 704-706.

American Politics 1101/5014
Community Development 5914
CU at the Capitol Legislative Internship 4434
Denver Politics 4124
Elections 4002/5008
GIS in Political Science 4011/5011
Urban Politics 4074/5094
Berlin: Architecture, Design and Politics (Summer Study Abroad)