delaGATE
Locations 
David Robson
Professor
Communications, Arts & Humanities
Contact Information
Marple901 South Media Line Road
Media, PA 19063-1094
610.359.5000
Room Number: 4309
Phone: (610) 359-5071
Contact Faculty
Officially, I teach writing, but I'm most interested in helping students hone the critical thinking skills they'll need in the world beyond college. In my class, we do this through the writing of essays of all sorts, research papers, and personal responses. Effective writing is hard won by working through a series of steps. Beyond that, it is the student’s job to challenge his own sense of self as a writer. Your primary task (at least at first) is to interest the reader in what you are writing about. Try choosing the least traveled path, or the least voiced opinion on a subject. Be outrageous, be passionate, be angry, or be euphoric, but BE something. And, above all, make your writing worth reading! How to do this is what my classes are all about.
Degrees
- Goddard College: MFA in Creative Writing
- Saint Joseph's University: MS in English Education
- Temple University: BA in Communications
Papers
- "Violence on the Field Reflected on the Stage"
- "Assassin a Hit at Penguin Rep"
- "Tackling NFL's Thorniest Issues, Onstage"
- Playing the Assassin Looks at Violence in the NFL"
- "Writing Assassin"
- Interview with David Robson
- Playwright David Robson Premieres "After Birth of a Nation"
- What's in a Game?
- Audience transfixed by DTC's riveting 'Assassin'
- Playing the Assassin is powerful drama
- A Play Inspired by a 1978 Tackle
- Review: 'Playing the Assassin' shows football's power
- ‘Playing the Assassin’ takes center stage at the Delaware Theatre Company
- A Hard Hit
- David Robson’s ‘Assassin’ frames story of redemption against a football backdrop
- City Theater’s ‘After Birth’ mixes absurd with apropos
- Quasi-History, Laughs Combine in a World Premiere at CTC
Awards, Grants and other Scholarly Recognitions
- Delaware's Best Playwright, 2017
- Gould Award for Teaching Excellence, 2010
- National Endowment for the Arts/Delaware Division of the Arts, Opportunity Grant, 2009
- National Endowment for the Arts/Delaware Division of the Arts, Opportunity Grant, 2007
- Delaware Division of the Arts, Artist Fellowship in Playwriting, 2006
- Delaware Division of the Arts, Artist Fellowship in Playwriting, 1998
Books
- Playing the Assassin (Drama)
- A Few Small Repairs (Drama)
- Man Measures Man (Drama)
- Killing Neil LaBute and Other Plays (Drama)
- The Decade of the 2000s (Non-fiction)
- The Murder of Emmett Till (Non-fiction)
- The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Non-fiction)
- Racism (Non-fiction)
- Auschwitz (Non-fiction)
- Disaster Response (Non-fiction)
- Steroids (Non-fiction)
- The Black Arts Movement (Non-fiction)
- The Kennedy Assassination (Non-fiction)
- Colonial America (Non-fiction)
- Shakespeare's Globe Theater (Non-fiction)
- Cyclops (Non-fiction)
- The Internment of Japanese Americans (Non-fiction)
Academic Biography
I hold an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College; an M.S. in English Education from St. Joseph's University; and a B.A. in Communications from Temple University. I began teaching at Delaware County Community College in 1992 as an adjunct instructor. I've been a full-time faculty member since 2002, earned tenure in 2007, and was presented with the Gould Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010. During that time, I have served the college on the Tenure, Emerita, Gould Award, Professional Development (Co-chair), Safe Spaces, and Middle States Accreditation and Planning Committees (co-chair), among others. Beyond my work at the college, I am an award-winning playwright and author of young adult non-fiction. My plays have been performed across the country and abroad, and I have received two fellowships and two grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts. In 2017, I was voted Delaware's Best Playwright by Broadway World. My acclaimed drama, PLAYING THE ASSASSIN, is scheduled for an Off-Broadway run in October of 2019. AFTER BIRTH OF A NATION, my new farce, opens at the college in November 2019.
