Sheila Collins

Political Science Department

William Paterson University
Wayne, New Jersey 07470 USA

Office: Room 434 Raubinger Hall Phone: (973) 720-3424; Fax (973) 720-3477 E-mail: collinss@wpunj.edu Fall 2008 Office Hours: Tuesday, 2:00-3:30 p.m.; Thursday 4:00-5:45 p.m.; or by appointment.

Sheila Collins got her B.A. at Carleton College, her M.A. at Columbia University and her Ph.D at the Union Institute Graduate School. She teaches courses in American Government and Politics, specializing in public policy (particularly poverty, employment and environmental policy) and social movements. She is also the Director of the Department's new M.A. Program in Public Policy and International Affairs.

Prof. Collins brings to her teaching a background in political activism, including participation in the Civil Rights, anti-Vietnam war, women's, and Central America solidarity movements. During the late 1970s and early 1980s she worked with community organizers around the country who were working to bring needed rights and services to their low-income communities. Out of that work grew The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, a multicultural community organizing and anti-racist training institute.

In 1984, Prof. Collins worked as National Rainbow Coordinator for the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign and served in 1988 as one of its economic policy advisors. In 1994 she became the co-founder of the National Jobs for All Coalition, a public policy research and advocacy organization. She currently serves on its Executive Committee. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Council on International and Public Affairs, the Editorial Board of New Political Science, and is co-Chair of the Columbia University seminar on Full Employment, Social Welfare and Equity. Prof. Collins is the author and co-author of five books and numerous articles, book chapters and policy papers. (See her C.V.)

Professor Collins is married to the Rev. John Collins. They are the parents of two daughters, Megan, a physician, and Jennifer, an Assistant Professor of Latin American and Comparative Politics at Colgate University.

When not teaching and writing, Professor Collins loves to hike and travel. She and her husband have walked several of Great Britain's long distance paths and have explored most of the "wilderness" areas along the Hudson River. She has traveled in most of Western Europe and some countries in Eastern Europe (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Hungary) and has participated in or led study tours to, some parts of the developing world including Senegal, The Gambia, Turkey, China, India, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Costa Rica.

Courses Taught by Prof. Collins

• Undergraduate
• American Government and Politics
• Congress and the Policy Making Process
• Politics of the Environment
• Politics of Poverty
• Social Movements and Political Change
• Graduate
• Public Policy in an Age of Globalization
• The Citizen, the State and International Politics
• American Welfare Policy in Global Perspective

Books by Sheila Collins
Washington's New Poor Law: Welfare Reform and the Roads Not Taken, 1935 to the Present (co-authored with Gertrude S. Goldberg, The Apex Press, 2001).	Let Them Eat Ketchup! The Politics of Poverty and Inequality (Monthly Review Press, 1995).
Jobs for All: A Plan for the Revitalization of America (co-authored with Helen Lachs Ginsberg & Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg, The Apex Press, 1994).
The Rainbow Challenge: The Jackson Campaign and the Future of U.S. Politics (Monthly Review Press, 1987).	A Different Heaven & Earth: A Feminist Perspective on Religion (Judson Press, 1974).

 

Selected Articles and Presentations
• Washington's New Poor Law: Welfare "Reform's" Legacy and Real Welfare Reform, Sept. 2000.

• The Right to Work and Welfare, Feb. 2002.

• "War Without End: The Domestic Economic Fallout of Empire," New Political Science, Vol. 26, No. 3 (September 2004). (available to WPU users only)