Robin Dembroff was raised in rural California as an Evangelical homeschooler and is now an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. They earned a B.A. in Philosophy with a minor in Biblical Studies from the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, then went on to receive an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Dembroff’s research, centered in philosophy of gender and social ontology, explores how inherited stories about our bodies perpetuate cycles of inequality and violence. Their first book, Real Men on Top: How Patriarchy Shapes Our Reality, argues that our social world is structured by a tripartite mythology of the identity Man that funnels wealth and power upward at enormous cost to women, children, animals, and the vast majority of men. The book, which was published with Oxford University Press in May 2026, has been highly acclaimed as paradigm-shifting and widely accessible.

Dembroff’s writing appears in academic journals across five disciplines, as well as popular outlets including Scientific American, The Boston Review, TIME, The Guardian, and The New York Review of Books. They also have co-authored Supreme Court amicus briefs in major LGBTQ rights cases, including a brief quoted in Justice Kagan’s dissent in United States v. Skrmetti.

Dembroff has delivered dozens of keynotes and named lectures, including at UNESCO World Philosophy Day in Toronto, Georgetown University Pride, and the Royal Institute of Philosophy in London. They’ve also appeared on podcasts including the I’ve Had It Podcast with Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan, Hear Me Out with Celeste Headlee, and Hi-Phi Nation with Barry Lam.

In 2022, Britannica named Dembroff one of twenty “shapers of the future” under 40 in the category of academia and ideas.