Robin McDowell's work explores historical dimensions of environmental racism and visions for environmental justice for Black communities. Through narratives of south Louisiana wetlands, sugar plantations, oil fields, and salt mines, her work demonstrates how racial, environmental, and economic encounters in these spaces shaped conditions of Black life. Her first book project, Swamp Capitalism: The Roots of Environmental Racism, is a history of bonds between race and environment on a geologic timescale.

Her research draws on archives, oral histories, earth sciences, graphic design, and multimedia art making. She is a member of Black Louisiana History Incubators in the Diaspora Solidarities Lab, a multi-institutional Black feminist partnership that supports solidarity work in Black and Ethnic Studies conducted by undergraduates, graduate students, faculty members, and community partners.