Robin Simpson

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Robin Simpson is an art historian, educator, and curator. As a researcher they focus on Canadian, American, and South Asian contexts from the mid-twentieth century to present. They have investigated the intersections of clinical and critical discourse in early video art; the cultural, social and institutional effects of radical pedagogy; and the aesthetics and politics of tolerance. Their research, classroom teaching, and work as a gallery and museum educator is grounded in a sense of art as a force that shapes our environments and experiences and the ways the public tests curators’ and artists’ methodologies. Simpson holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of British Columbia.

They have worked at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Montreal), the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery (Vancouver), and the Aga Khan Museum (Toronto). Independent projects have been presented at VIVO Media Arts Centre (Vancouver), EFA Project Space (New York), the Banff Centre (Banff, Alberta), Le Printemps de Septembre (Toulouse), and Dare Dare (Montreal), in addition to many informal venues. Their critical writing has been published in a range of magazines and journals, including C Magazine, Capilano Review, Espace, Sarai Reader, Journal of Canadian Art History, and Amodern, and catalogues published by MIT Press, Presentation House Gallery, and Phi Foundation. In collaboration with the Williams family and musician and writer Alexander Moskos, they coordinate the preservation, research, and presentation of the life work of Trinidadian Canadian artist, poet, and musician Carlyle Williams. 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.