Tremayne D. Robertson, associate director in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, received the 2011 Joan Lukas Rothenberg Graduate Student Service Award, which recognizes the work of SU students who have contributed to feminist education on campus through direct service to the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, and/or the larger SU community. Vivian May, associate professor of women’s and gender studies, nominated Robertson for the award this spring.
“Receiving this award is an honor and affirmation that I am becoming the man my mother raised me to be—a complete person that is self-assured and defines his own path,” says Robertson.
In his tenure at SU, Robertson has been engaged in all facets of the campus community. Within the academic arena, from 2005-09, Robertson served as a co-facilitator of the Gender and Sexual Orientation section in the Intergroup Dialogue Program. In 2009, he taught the course “The Sociology of Race, Sports, and Gender on the College Campus,” for the cultural foundations of education graduate program.
“Having an appreciation for racial and ethnic marginalization in the U.S., and an aspiration to do comprehensive social justice, I’ve been inspired to be an advocate for women by challenging myself and other men to operate beyond the prescribed notions of manhood,” says Robertson.
One of the ways in which he has been an advocate on campus is through the creation of A Men’s Issue (AMI) in 2003. AMI is a nationally recognized undergraduate student organization committed to ending sexual violence and cultivating gender equity. Robertson is the co-founder of the organization and served four years as an adviser. He participated in national trainings, and was the recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Faculty Award and the 2004 Vagina Warrior Award for his work with AMI.
From 2006-08, Robertson was also a facilitator for the Mentors in Violence Prevention program, where he led intimate partner violence-prevention workshops for students and coordinated train-the-trainer undergraduate peer mentor workshops.
At SU, Robertson has been a member of the White Ribbon Campaign Committee for Domestic Violence Prevention, and the Team Against Bias (TAB) Gender Subcommittee. He is a featured presenter on this topic at various institutions, including Ithaca College, Cazenovia College and SUNY Oswego, as well as at conferences and for community organizations.
