 Robin Cohen was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.He left in 1964, returning to the country for three years in the post-Mandela period, when he served as Dean of Humanities at the University of Cape Town (2001–04).He has held appointments at the universities of Ibadan, Nigeria (1967–69), Birmingham, UK (1969–77), the West Indies (Professor of Sociology, 1977-9), Warwick, UK (Professor of Sociology, 1979–2006) and Oxford (2006–).