Robert Stewart joins the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice as an assistant professor after receiving a PhD from the University of Minnesota. As a sociocriminologist, his research interests are centered on the social, political and collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement with an emphasis on the accumulating effects of criminal justice interaction and criminal records on impacted people and communities. He is a member of a multistate research team studying criminal legal financial obligations, and he is co-principal investigator on a study of online criminal record data accuracy. ​ He worked as the Research Director of the Minnesota Justice Research Center, a local nonprofit working to improve the justice system through high-quality and accessible research, policy development, and education. He has been an active member of the Minnesota Second Chance Coalition (SCC) and have served on the Board of Directors since 2015. The SCC is a bipartisan coalition that advocates for policy and practice reforms that remove  barriers for justice-involved people and limit the adverse impacts of the justice system on individuals, their families, and their communities.