William Collins, Ph.D. Director of Asia/Pacific Studies, SIT Study Abroad
William Collins received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Before his doctoral fieldwork in Sumatra he pursued graduate studies at SOAS in London and the Rijksuniversiteit in Leiden. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta and the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. As an academic, Dr Collins’ research interests are the oral epic and traditional literature from highland South Sumatra and ethnography of the Muslim minority in Cambodia. Dr Collins was the founding resident Study Center Director in Indonesia for the UC Education Abroad Program and served as Vice Chair of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley.
Dr Collins has also had a career in international development, serving as a Project Manager to the Ministry of Development for UNDP in Timor Leste and as a Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Culture for UNESCO and the Ministry of Education for UNICEF in Cambodia. He was also the president of a Cambodian NGO research institute that engaged Cambodian academics in research for development projects.
In his current role as one of the Directors of Area Studies at SIT, Dr Collins works toward building programs of the highest caliber in the Asia/Pacific region, to respond to student demand, and coordinates the administration, finances and implementation of SIT Study Abroad programs in the region.
