CUNY’S GRADUATE CENTER AWARDS HONORARY DOCTORATE TO ROB ROBINSON

It is with immense honor and excitement that we celebrate a well-deserved achievement of Robert Robinson, a cherished member of the Housing Justice Lab and a highly regarded faculty member of the MS Design and Urban Ecologies program. Rob’s unwavering commitment to housing justice, tireless advocacy, and profound dedication to building equitable communities have left an indelible mark on both our academic community and the broader movement for social justice. As we honor this remarkable achievement, I would like to take a moment to share a few words about Rob’s inspiring journey and the impact he continues to make in the fight for housing justice.

Rob Robinson grew up in Freeport, Long Island, where his family faced systemic challenges stemming from redlining and school district discrimination. Despite these barriers, Rob excelled academically, became an honor roll student, and earned an athletic scholarship to study business in Maryland. After graduating, he moved to New York City’s Lower East Side. A career shift later took him to Miami, Florida, but a job loss after just four months led to a life-altering experience with homelessness in both Miami and New York City.

During this time, Rob connected with the grassroots organization Picture the Homeless, marking the start of his journey as a housing justice advocate. A pivotal moment in his activism came during a 2009 trip to Hungary with Picture the Homeless, where he saw firsthand the transformative power of storytelling in the fight for housing rights. Since then, Rob has been a staunch advocate for using personal narratives to challenge the myth that homelessness is a personal failing rather than a systemic issue.

In 2009, Rob became Senior Advisor at Partners for Dignity and Rights. He also served as the New York City chairperson for the first-ever official mission to the U.S. of a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. Additionally, in early 2010, he was part of a team coordinated by the U.S. Human Rights Network. During this time, Rob traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, several times to help prepare for the United States’ inaugural appearance in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

Rob’s activism expanded in the years that followed through his involvement with Take Back the Land across the U.S., the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) and the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) in Brazil, Abahlali baseMjondolo (the Shack Dwellers Movement) in South Africa, the International Alliance of Inhabitants, and the Movement of People Affected by Mortgages (La PAH) in Spain.

Another pivotal moment in Rob’s advocacy journey occurred when, as a member of Picture the Homeless, he attended a panel discussion at Columbia University. The panel included Peter Marcuse, a lawyer and urban planner; Brenda Stokely, a union organizer with New York’s municipal workers union; and Ed Ott, then-director of the Central Labor Council in New York. Although Rob may not have realized it at the time, this event would profoundly shape his path in housing justice advocacy.

As always, Rob’s words resonated deeply with the audience, but one statement in particular stood out: “Gentrification leads to displacement, which leads to homelessness, which leads to criminalization.” Among those captivated was Neil Smith, who was in the audience. Neil stood up and said, “Say that again.” Rob repeated the phrase, and the rest, as they say, is history.

At the time, Neil Smith, then director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center, invited Rob to speak to his PhD students. Rob initially hesitated, questioning his qualifications to teach doctoral students. Neil’s response was resolute: “You taught me. You’re going to teach my students.” He added, “If you have knowledge and you’re willing to share it, you’re a teacher. You don’t need a piece of paper to do that.”

and Urban Ecologies program. Recognizing Robles-Durán as an unconventional and impactful planner, Marcuse introduced him to Rob at a conference organized by Robles-Durán. At the event, Robles-Durán brought together Rob, myself, and several other academics from The New School’s urban programs to learn about Rob’s and Neil Smith’s work with graduate students. During the discussion, Rob issued a challenge: “I challenge you guys to pick up Neil’s legacy.”This call to action—to forge stronger connections between grassroots movements and academia—has since become a guiding principle of the MS Design and Urban Ecologies program.

By late 2012, the MS Design and Urban Ecologies program co-organized the Urban Uprising: Re-imagining the City conference in partnership with the CUNY Graduate Center’s Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, The Right to the City Coalition, The Brecht Forum, and Growing Roots. This two-day event brought together architects, activists, urban designers, and planners from across the country to envision cities for the next century.

The conference’s first day, hosted at the CUNY Graduate Center, focused on global protest movements from the previous year, including the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. Not since the 1960s had so many people worldwide taken to the streets, demanding more just and democratic societies, access to housing, healthcare, education, food, jobs, clean environments, and lives free from police violence. Discussions explored lessons from these movements about how populations organize, assemble, and work within cities. Key speakers at the conference included David Harvey (Director, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center), Frances Fox Piven (Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, CUNY), Rob Robinson (Campaign to Restore National Housing, Take Back the Land, US Human Rights Network), Peter Marcuse (Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, Columbia University), Marian Kramer (Co-chair, National Welfare Rights Union; founding member, League of Revolutionary Black Workers), and Miguel Robles-Durán.

The second day, held at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium, brought together participants from over 80 civic organizations across New York City. I had the privilege of working with these participants as they collaborated in smaller groups to develop strategic action plans aimed at radically transforming how cities operate and whom they serve. By the end of the day, each group had outlined actionable steps toward achieving social, spatial, and environmental justice.

Two years later, in the spring of 2014, another memorable conference, Creative Alternatives to Capitalism, was organized by the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at CUNY, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, the National Strategy Center for the Right to Territory, and Parsons Graduate Urban Programs at The New School. During this time, I often shared spaces with Rob, following the work of Picture the Homeless and attending seminars at the Brecht Forum and CUNY Graduate Center. We constantly exchanged thoughts, and Rob tirelessly supported my advocacy work with graduate students, attending every lecture and seminar I organized.

As part of the event’s organization, Rob caught my attention one day and said, “I want you to moderate the housing panel. I want you to talk this time. Your voice needs to be heard.” At that time, I was a part-time faculty member with a precarious salary, finishing my PhD, and raising two little boys. Taking the stage was not easy for me. While I had built strong connections with leaders and organizations in the city’s housing movement on the streets, I had little experience beyond that. Nevertheless, I accepted Rob’s challenge to moderate the housing panel at Creative Alternatives to Capitalism and other events he invited me to.

Eventually, I became full-time faculty at The New School, and a few years later, I founded the Housing Justice Lab. From day one, Rob supported the work my students and I developed and attended many of the events we organized. He quickly became an integral part of our team, contributing to the newly launched Housing Justice Oral History Project. By this time, Rob had also joined the MS Design and Urban Ecologies program as part-time faculty. Alongside critical community planner Tom Angotti, he co-led the Urban Colloquium seminar in fall 2022, a role he has continued to hold since.

Outside of The New School, my collaboration with Rob continued. In 2022, I recommended him as an appointee of the Cooper Square Community Land Trust to serve on the board of directors for the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association. At the time, I also served on the board, dedicating countless hours to overseeing the administration and management of the housing cooperative—a project brought to life through the decades-long efforts of housing activist Frances Goldin. Rob, already a respected figure in the Community Land Trust movement in New York City and beyond, accepted the role and has taken it very seriously ever since.

Rob’s health has been a frequent concern for those of us who know him closely, but never more so than the day he experienced complications from a hip surgery while commuting to a doctor’s appointment in 2023. On that day, his well-being stopped half of the city. Yet, true to his superhero spirit, Rob recovered and resumed his tireless work, continuing to make an impact locally, nationally, and internationally. It is truly an impossible task to express how many of us Rob has transformed, all of us who took turns to visit him at the hospital and at home are just a tiny portion of the the infinite mesh of relations Rob, acting as a bridge, has built in across the planet.

Rob’s journey and impact might be cover in a book or two. This short introduction is was all about to proudly share that on November 1st 2024 Rob received an email from Joshua C. Brumberg, President of the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, inviting him to receive an honorary degree. The message highlighted his significant contributions, particularly his work in bringing homelessness to the forefront of public discourse and forging collaborative partnerships with communities to advocate for resources—efforts that aligned closely with the Graduate Center’s mission.

The Graduate Center will award Rob the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.), honoris causa, at its annual commencement ceremony on June 10, 2025, at Lincoln Center. Stay tuned for the celebration!