Associate Vice Provost for Arts and Academic Affairs

Robin Romans oversees several university-wide initiatives related to the arts and humanities, accreditation, strategic planning, curriculum development, and postdoctoral affairs.  

Romans oversees the Provost’s Arts and Humanities Initiative, including USC’s nationally recognized Visions and Voices program, the International Artist Fellowship program, and the new Arts in Action program.  He serves as the Provost’s liaison to USC’s six arts schools and two museums, and serves as vice chair of the Faculty Advisory Board for the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, for which he wrote the original proposal that garnered an eight-figure gift of endowment to the University.  

Romans is USC’s Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO), administering all processes related to USC’s accreditation through the Senior Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WSCUC).  As ALO, he produces self-studies and annual reports, oversees onsite visits in connection with WSCUC, and consults with academic units on educational effectiveness, learning assessment, online programs, and specialized and professional accreditation. 

Romans manages USC’s strategic planning process, serving as lead writer for the Strategic Plan: Answering the Call (2018) and the Strategic Vision: Matching Deeds to Ambitions (2011).  Romans also serves as Provost Liaison to the University Committee on Curriculum.  He oversees the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and directs the Progressive Degree Program, which allows undergraduates to earn a master’s degree in as little as one year beyond their bachelor’s studies. 

Prior to joining the Provost’s Office, Romans served as Assistant Dean of Admission and Honors Programs and directed USC’s prestigious Thematic Option Honors Program in the USC Dornsife College.  He devised liberal arts recruitment strategies, represented the liberal arts at major admission events, and designed new undergraduate programs and research opportunities.

Romans earned his doctorate in political science and teaches courses in political theory and gender studies, including Ideology and Political Conflict, Sex, Power, and Politics; Feminist Theory, The Culture of Athenian Democracy, American Political Thought, and Body Politics.  His teaching interests include classical political thought, the Enlightenment, Liberalism, Marxism, feminism, and contemporary political thought.