Jonathan Collins

Jonathan E. Collins (he/him/his) is the Brown University Mary Tefft and John Hazen White Sr. Assistant Professor of Political Science, Education and International and Public Affairs. At Brown, Professor Collins holds affiliations with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, the Choices Program, and the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy as well as a courtesy appointment in Urban Studies. His research focuses on race and ethnic politics, urban politics, state and local politics, education politics and policy, and democratic innovation.

As a researcher, Collins has been at the forefront of the study of public participation at school board meetings. He is the founder and director of the Brown University PAVED Research Initiative through which he is leading new participatory budgeting initiatives aimed at empowering minority communities. He has also written on African American voting behavior, local election reform, and school finance policy. His scholarship has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Behavior, the Peabody Journal of Education, American Politics Research, the Urban Affairs Review, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and Local Government Studies.

He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, the American Political Science Association's Susan Clarke Young Scholar Award, and the Brown University Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. His research has been funded by the Spencer Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

Research

Professor Collins's research focuses on the democratic behavior of American political institutions as well as the political behavior of People of Color in the U.S., particularly African Americans. His work on democratic behavior centers on participatory and deliberative democracy. He is particularly interested in the capacity for the democratic innovations to improve the quality of schools in low-income minoritized communities. For his research on POC political behavior, he does work to help us better understand the factors that motivate POCs to engage in a range of political activities such as: vote in national and local elections, attend a school board meeting, and run for public office. His research as a whole aims to help us understand what is needed to push the U.S. closer to a functioning multi-racial society.

Publications

Collins, Jonathan. (2021). “Does the Meeting Style Matter? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings.” American Political Science Review. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000320.

Collins, Jonathan. (2021). “Should School Boards Be in Charge? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings.” Peabody Journal of Education. (forthcoming).

Collins, Jonathan, Eddie Lucero, and Jessica Trounstine (2020). “Will Concurrent Elections Shape the Electorate?” California Journal of Politics and Policy. https://doi.org/10.5070/P2cjpp1150416

Scott Jamil and Jonathan Collins. (2020). "Riled up about running for office: examining the impact of emotions on political ambition." Politics, Groups, and Identities. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2020.1757806

Collins, Jonathan. (2019)."Do Teachers Want Democracy? Deliberative Culture and Teachers’ Evaluations of Schools." Urban Affairs Review. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1078087419869550

Collins, Jonathan and Ray Block Jr. (2018). “Fired Up or Ready to Go? The Impact of Declining Enthusiasm on African American Political Participation in the Post-Obama Era.” Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-018-9488-y.

Collins, Jonathan. (2018)."Urban representation through deliberation: A theory and test of deliberative democracy at the local level." Journal of Urban Affairs : 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2018.1427507

Teaching

Introduction to Education and Society: Foundations of Opportunity and Inequality

News|Recent News

8th-graders' history and civics scores drop on a national test (interview with Jonathan Collins)

May 3, 2023 NPR

In an interview with NPR, Jonathan Collins talks about the so-called "Nation's Report Card" on civics and U.S. history.

What should we make of book bans? (written by Jonathan Collins)

May 1, 2023 Kappan

In a recent Kappan article, Jonathan Collins explains the issue with book bans and offers a clear path forward.

This high school gave spending power to students (comments by Jonathan Collins)

April 24, 2023 The Advocate

Jonathan Collins comments for The Advocate, “The interesting thing about participatory budgeting is that the deeper you get into it, the more you quickly realize, it is not about the money."

Policy questions for ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (written by Jonathan Collins)

March 27, 2023 Kappan

In a recent Kappan article, Jonathan Collins writes about the rapid emergence of AI and machine learning and its implications for K-12 education policy.

Federal designation for Black K-12 schools (written by Jonathan Collins)

February 27, 2023 Kappan

Jonathan Collins writes for Kappan, "We’ve seen decades of quiet bipartisan support for colleges and universities that primarily serve Black students. We should demand the same kind of bipartisan support for schools doing this at the K-12 level."

Students in Central Falls got $10k to upgrade their high school. It drove a citywide ‘wave of democracy’ (comments by Jonathan Collins)

February 1, 2023 The Boston Globe

Jonathan Collins comments for The Boston Globe, “The interesting thing about participatory budgeting is that the deeper you get into it, the more you quickly realize, it is not about the money."

It’s more than money: Supporting the Black school (written by Jonathan Collins)

January 30, 2023 Kappan

Jonathan Collines writes for Kappan, "Supporting Black institutions is about more than financial investment. How do they fit into larger institutional arrangements? These are the truly pressing questions we need to ask."

People

Biography