Robert Compton is Associate Professor of Africana Latino Studies and Political Science at the State University of New York at Oneonta, and teaches courses in comparative politics (comparative development of political economy: Africa and Asia) and international relations (international political economy). He is also Vice President of the Oneonta Chapter of the United University Professions (UUP), the largest higher education union in the United States and Chair of the Department of Africana and Latino Studies.

Compton's research interests include East Asian and Southern African political development and US-East Asian relations. He is an editor of and contributor to Imagining Globalization, Palgrave-MacMillan (2009) and Transforming East Asian Domestic and International Politics, Ashgate (2002), and author of East Asian Democratization: Impact of Globalization, Culture, and Economy, Praeger (2000). Other publications, including articles and book reviews, have appeared in the Journal of African Policy Studies, Perspectives on Politics, International Journal on World Peace, and Africa Today.

In 2008, Compton was a Fulbright Scholar and taught at the University of Zimbabwe. He was a Visiting Scholar (2007) at the Center for Civil Society (CCS) at the University of KwaZulu Natal (Durban, South Africa). He was the Presiding Officer of the College Senate at Oneonta (2007-08).