Robert Stockman was raised in Granby, Connecticut by Harold Herman and Margery Stockman, who worked as apple farmers. He initially majored in geology at Wesleyan University and later received a master's degree in planetary science from Brown University, with a particular interest in the geology of Mars. He was introduced to the Baháʼí Faith while an undergraduate student and converted at the age of twenty, on October 16, 1973. He has been an active Baháʼí since his conversion, and in 1979 participated in mass teachings in rural central Florida. During his studies for his master's degree in geology, he developed an interest in the history of the Baháʼí community in Rhode Island which led to his researching the biography of Thornton Chase. This endeavor led to the publication of Baha'i Faith in America: Origins 1892–1900 followed by Baha'i Faith in America, The: Early Expansion, 1900–1912 Volume 2 before the ultimate publishing of Thornton Chase: First American Baha'i. Starting in 1989, he has worked for the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, based in Wilmette, Illinois, in various capacities. He is married to Mana Derakhshani.
Career
Subsequent to earning his doctorate from Harvard Divinity School, Stockman began teaching at the DePaul University in Chicago prior to proceeding to his current position as a lecturer at Indiana University South Bend, where he teaches religious studies. He serves as director of the Wilmette Institute. He has served on the boards of the Baháʼí Encyclopedia project, the Association for Baháʼí Studies, and World Order magazine. He has lectured on Baháʼí topics across the world and is a frequent contributor to Baháʼí panels at the American Academy of Religion.
Articles
Review of "In Service to the Common Good: The American Baháʼí Community's Commitment to Social Change," in World Order, vol. 37, no. 3, 45-48.
"The Baha'i Faith and Globalization, 1900–1912," in a peer-reviewed volume on globalization and the Baháʼí Faith.
"The Baháʼí Faith," in the Worldmark Encyclopedia.
Review of Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, “Life and Death of Planet Earth,” in World Order, vol. 34, no. 3, 42-47.
"The Baháʼí Faith and Interfaith Relations: A Brief History," in World Order, vol. 33, no. 4, 19-33.
"Baháʼí Faith," in Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ed. J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann, 102-114
"True, Corinne Knight," in Women Building Chicago, 1790–1990, ed. Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast, 891-93.
"Baháʼí faith," in Encyclopedia of American Religious History, ed. Edward L. Queen II, Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr., 53-55.
"The Unity Principle: Ideas of Social Concord and Discord in the Baháʼí Faith," in Joseph Gittler, ed., Research in Human Social Conflict, Volume 2, pp. 1–19.
Response to Juan R. I Cole, “Race, Immorality, and Money in the American Baháʼí Community: Impeaching the Los Angeles Spiritual Assembly,” Religion 30, 133-39.
"Baháʼí Faith," in James R. Lewis, The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions, 64-71.
"Revelation, Interpretation, and Elucidation in the Baháʼí Writings", in Moojan Momen, ed., Scripture and Revelation.
