Kathleen Collins is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2000. Professor Collins is the author of Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia, which won the Central Eurasian Studies Society Award for the Best Book in the Social Sciences on Central Eurasia. She is currently completing her second book: The Rise of Muslim Poltiics: Islam and State in Central Asia and the Caucasus (under contract, Cambridge University Press). She has published articles in World Poltiics, Comparative Poltiics, the Journal of Democracy, Political Research Quarterly, and Europe-Asia Studies, as well as in numerous edited volumes.

Collins' research and teaching interests include: political transition and democratization, Islam and poltiics, civil and ethic conflict, clan politics, informal institutions, civil society development, and Soviet and post-Soviet political development, especially in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Collins has done extensive field research in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. She has also done extensive consulting for the National Bureau of Asian Research, the United Nations Development Program, the United States Agency for International Development, the International Crisis Group, and other policy-making organizations.