Kathleen Collins is Associate Professor of Political Science and an Affiliate Faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Collins is recipient of the national Carnegie Scholar Award and the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Award. Collins is also author of Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia (2006), which won the award for the best book in the social science fields from the international Central Eurasian Studies Society. She won the S. M. Lipset Award in a national competition for the best dissertation in Comparative Politics or Sociology. She has published two dozen academic articles in edited books and journals. Collins teaches doctoral and undergraduate courses on Central Asian politics, Russian/Soviet history and politics, Afghanistan's wars, political Islam, Islam and democracy, and religion and politics. Additionally, she has worked on projects with or consulted for the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations Development Program, the International Crisis Group, the National Bureau of Asian Research, and Freedom House. She has presented her work to multiple US government agencies, including the Helsinki Commission, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense.