Robert taught in Texas for 14 years before moving to West Virginia in the summer of 2009. His research specialty is sermon rhetoric. He is the director of Marshall's Center for Sermon Studies; the founding editor of Sermon Studies, a peer-reviewed open access journal; and the curator of the Library of Appalachian Preaching, an online collection of sermons and other addresses delivered within Appalachia, or elsewhere by preachers with ties to the Appalachian region.