Ph.D. in English, Southern Methodist University
M.A. in Literature, Texas State University
B.A. in Literature, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Dr. Micah Robbins is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of English. With more than ten years of experience in American higher education, he leads an interdisciplinary school that offers certificate and undergraduate degree programs in International Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Psychology, and Biology, as well as a graduate degree in International Affairs. He also oversees the university’s Core Curriculum, a foundational component of every undergraduate program, regardless of disciplinary specialization.

Guided by a passion for the liberal arts and a commitment to student-centered success, Dr. Robbins’s teaching and administrative philosophies reflect a belief that the core competencies developed through a liberal arts education are relevant across a wide range of personal, professional, and civic contexts. He further believes that the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake can serve as a catalyst for cultivating the essential skills needed to thrive in today’s evolving careers.

During his tenure as Dean, Dr. Robbins has led a range of institutional initiatives aimed at promoting academic excellence, curricular innovation, and student engagement. He has played a central role in integrating design thinking, experiential learning, soft skills development, and undergraduate research into the student experience. He has also collaborated across disciplines to embed emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and virtual reality, into the curriculum.

Among his many accomplishments, he has led the development of several innovative courses, including the university’s first Digital Humanities course and a university-wide general education capstone, the first of its kind in the UAE. As co-chair of the university’s strategic planning committee, he helped shape AUD’s current Five-Year Strategic Plan and has been closely involved in the university’s two most recent Quality Enhancement Plans.

Within the School of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Robbins established departmental advisory boards for each degree program, spearheaded the creation of a Psychology laboratory, and played a key role in expanding undergraduate internship opportunities, including the introduction of a mandatory internship for Biology majors. He has also fostered student engagement with industry leaders through dozens of guest lectures, workshops, and professional field trips.

Dr. Robbins’s teaching portfolio encompasses a variety of courses, ranging from Academic Writing and Public Speaking to American Literature and Digital Humanities. His research focuses on postwar American literature and culture, with particular attention to how the literature of the period responded to moments of social, political, and epistemological crisis. His work has appeared in Intelligence and National Security, The b2o Review, Protest on the Page: Essays on Print and the Culture of Dissent since 1865, and Language and Literature in a Glocal World. He is currently working on two research projects: a literary analysis of the anti-war poetics in Allen Ginsberg’s Planet News and The Fall of America, and a digital mapping project of geographical references in the works of John le Carré.