Robin Dembroff is an associate professor of philosophy at Yale University. They were homeschooled through high school in rural California before attending the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, where they earned a major in Philosophy and a minor in Biblical Studies. Dembroff went on to receive an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Dembroff’s research explores how narratives of bodily difference shape how we perceive ourselves and others. Their first book, Real Men on Top: How Patriarchy Shapes Our Reality, argues that our world is structured by stories of sex, development, and lineage that marginalize women, children, animals, and most men. The book is forthcoming with Oxford University Press in 2026.
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Dembroff is a person of trans experience, raised in rural America and educated in Christian institutions. Now at one of the world’s most elite universities, their life and work continue to defy genre. Their 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've been featured on several podcasts, including Slate's Hear Me Out and Hi-Phi Nation, and have co-authored amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. 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. In 2022, Britannica named them one of twenty “shapers of the future” under 40 in the category of academia and ideas.