Out in Front: Patricia Hill Collins, M.A.T.'70

Taking the helm of the American Sociological Association (ASA) to become its 100th president, Patricia Hill Collins, M.A.T.'70, says that her leadership motto is to make herself "expendable."

Collins, who is the first African American woman to head the ASA, explains that her goal is not to be "the type of leader that people can't imagine what they are going to do without," but one that empowers others to a point where they can take over -- maybe doing things a little differently -- yet well equipped to deal with the challenges they will confront.

This attitude has evolved out of a career in which Collins has smashed through racial and gender barriers to create her own professional opportunities, and one in which she has also worked diligently for those who have come after her in pursuing their professional goals.

"I'm often the first person to get there," says Collins, "so I have to look behind me and say, 'Now, what opportunities are in my wake that people can take advantage of and take this further than I have?'"

In her current position as distinguished university professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Collins works with graduate students in examining race, feminist scholarship, and sociological theory. She traces many of the questions and issues of her present research -- especially about education and its role in democracy -- back to her time as a student at Harvard. "It was a time of so much political activity," she says. "And the school really tried to be responsive to those issues of urban education in terms of equality and democracy."

For example, Collins says that the Ed School reached out to local communities, and her placements in Roxbury and other areas of Boston encouraged her to think more broadly about education than just classroom instruction, to its significance in civic participation. "Many of the larger theoretical issues that I am interested in now -- structural issues, and of social change, equity -- are refracted through the lens of my time at Harvard," says Collins. "The questions of social justice: How do we actually construct just, fair communities for people that protect individual freedoms, and yet do not construct individual freedoms at the expense of others? Is it possible to have an idea of freedom that is not predicated upon someone else's subordination? Can you have a definition of masculinity that doesn't require women's subordination?"

Her commitment to these issues raised in her research is reflected in her involvement with the ASA's minority fellowship program. As president, Collins stresses the importance of providing students of color with the support and opportunities necessary for them to excel. She also sees and respects an interconnectedness with those who came before her and contributed to laying the foundations for her own success. However, she believes that eventually the role model has to step aside, and the next wave of scholars must step up and take the lead.

She cites the presidential campaign of Barack Obama as a fascinating example of the participation and willingness of youth to assume responsibility and leadership roles, and perhaps see new possibilities that they hadn't seen before.

"I tell my students, who always want me to be in front of the line, at some point you have to be in front," says Collins. "I hold myself, and my students, to very high standards. And what is surprising to them is what they can actually do, that they didn't imagine they could do.

-- Amy Magin Wong is a frequent contributor to Ed. whose last piece was on Academic Dean Robert Schwartz and the Bloomberg Chair.