Dr. Randall Collins is an American sociologistwho has been influential in both his teaching and writing. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic workshave been translated into various languages. Collins is currentlyEmeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a leading contemporary social theorist whose areas of expertise include the macro-historical sociology of political and economic change;micro-sociology, including face-to-face interaction;and the sociology of intellectuals and social conflict. He has devoted much of his careerand research to study society, how is it created and destroyed throughemotional behaviors of human beings. He is considered to be one of theleading non-Marxist conflict theorists in the United States, and servedas the president of the American Sociological Association from 2010 to2011.
Dr. Collins' first position in academia was at UC Berkeley, followed by many other universities including the University ofWisconsin-Madison, followed by the UC San Diego, the University ofVirginia, then UC Riverside, and finally the University of Pennsylvania. He took intermittent breaks from academia, as a novelist, and as afreelance scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Chicago,Harvard, and Cambridge, as well as various schools in Europe, Japan, and China. Collins has published almost one hundred articles sincefinishing his undergraduate education. He has also written andcontributed to several books with a range of topics such as thediscovery of society to the sociology of marriage and family life.
Dr. Collins grew up in a slew of different cities and countries, his father being a diplomat (and possible spy) with the US State Department during the Cold War. They lived in Germany immediately following World War II, and later in Moscow, among other places such as Uruguay.