About

Cynthia Robinson grew up in the western corner of Tennessee, in Memphis and Nashville, where she was surrounded by lush, overgrown gardens and natural beauty. Her early experiences with these gardens, along with her childhood memories of a grey stone mansion with extensive gardens, have deeply influenced her appreciation for plant life and natural environments. She first encountered Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Rappaccini’s Daughter' during her college years, which resonated with her personal connection to lush, poisonous gardens and the symbolism of plant growth and transformation. Her background reflects a lifelong fascination with gardens, plants, and the natural world, which she explores through her writings and personal reflections.

Research topics

• Sociology
• History
• Visual arts
• Art history
• Art
• Political Science
• Media studies
• Social psychology
• Law
• Psychology
• Archaeology
• Aesthetics
• Business

Selected publications

• 16.09.03, Nickson, Toledo Cathedral

  Indiana Magazine of History (Indiana University) · 2025-06-19

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Who Writes for JME? Why Write for JME?

  Journal of Museum Education · 2022-01-02 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• International Perspectives: What is Museum Education?

  Journal of Museum Education · 2021-07-03 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  "International Perspectives: What is Museum Education?." Journal of Museum Education, 46(3), pp. 283–284

  PublisherDOI

• Museums and Emotions

  Journal of Museum Education · 2021 · 7 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Visual arts
  • Art

  Many years ago, newly back at my museum job after a short maternity leave, I found myself looking at a late-nineteenth-century photo of a mother and stillborn baby.1 My heart leapt out of my chest:...

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Museums and Public Climate Action

  Journal of Museum Education · 2020 · 7 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Media studies

  For the October 2013 issue of Journal of Museum Education (JME 39:3) on “Engaging Visitors to Create Positive Futures,” guest editors John C. Anderson and Melissa A. Williams, then from the New Eng...

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Book Reviews

  International Journal of Islamic Architecture · 2020-01-04

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Living with the Founder: Constraints and Creativity

  Journal of Museum Education · 2020 · 2 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Visual arts

  What inspires someone to create a museum? While the foundation of many public museums includes private collections, museums established by an individual reflect a unique vision and passion that is ...

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Desert and Palace: Poetics of Place in Naṣrid Poems to the Prophet

  2020-03-17

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This essay explores, through the lens of Nasrid poets’ frequent evocations of the lands of Najd, Nasrid culture’s constructions of relationships with the origins of Islam, the origins of poetry, and the origins of the Arabic language itself; it argues that these elements are an integral part of the Nasrid dynasty’s claims to legitimacy in the realms of court, cultural production, and devotion.

  PublisherDOI

• Janina M. Safran, <i>Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia</i>. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2013. Pp. ix, 247. $65. ISBN: 978-0-8014-5183-6.

  Speculum · 2019-09-18

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• From the Editor-in-Chief

  Journal of Museum Education · 2019-07-03

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Tina R. Nolan

  24 shared

• Esther Y. Dell

  Pennsylvania State University

  2 shared

• Virginia A. Lingle

  2 shared

• Kate Baker

  Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

  1 shared

• Katherine Mackinnon

  University of Toronto

  1 shared

• Karin Enstam

  Memorial

  1 shared

• Simone Pinet

  1 shared

• Larry Jacobsen

  Memorial

  1 shared

Education

• Library and Information Studies

  University of Wisconsin Madison

  1992

• BA, Labor Studies

  Metropolitan State University

  1988

Awards & honors

• 2026 Klarman Fellows