Robin Derby

Robin Derby is Professor of History at UCLA and holds the Dr. E. Bradford Burns Chair in Latin American Studies. Her research examines everyday life under state terror, Haitian-Dominican borderlands history, and articulations of race, national identity, and witchcraft in popular media.

Dr. Derby's scholarly contributions include the award-winning monograph The Dictator's Seduction: Politics and the Popular Imagination in the Era of Trujillo and co-edited volumes such as Activating the Past: History and Memory in the Black Atlantic World. Her current research investigates werewolf narratives as historical memory in the Haitian-Dominican borderlands.

Research interests encompass Caribbean militarism, cultural histories of food, death rituals, and witchcraft's relationship with modernity. Recent publications analyze Haitian-Dominican historical memory, zombie folklore origins, and religious syncretism in Vodou practices.

Her honors include the Bolton-Johnson Prize from the American Historical Association and the Latin American Studies Association's translation prize. Dr. Derby teaches courses on Caribbean history, cultural food studies, and oral history methodologies.