Collins, Patricia Hill

Patricia Hill Collins, a sociologist, is one of America's leading black feminist scholars. Collins draws on diverse theoretical traditions, including Afrocentrism, feminist theory, standpoint theory, critical theory, poststructuralism, and postmodernism, and has published in a wide range of fields including sociology, philosophy, history, and psychology. She is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park; Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Cincinnati; and the 100th president of the American Sociology Association.

The daughter of a factory farm worker and a secretary, Collins was born in Philadelphia in 1948. She received a B.A. in sociology from Brandeis University in 1969, an M.A. in education from Harvard University in 1970, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Brandeis University in 1984.

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