Before that, Professor Collins was Associate Dean for Humanities, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and Professor of Greek and Latin, Department of Classical Studies, at the University of Michigan. He is a highly accomplished scholar specialising in the ancient Greco-Roman world and has published on literature, mythology, art, and religion. Professor Collins received his BA and MA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his PhD from Harvard University. 

He has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships, including by the Ford Foundation, the Institute for Humanities at UM, the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., and most recently by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York to expand museum and conservation studies in Hong Kong. Professor Collins is leading the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Arts in an integrated outreach strategy to develop fine arts and cultural heritage appreciation between Hong Kong and global partner institutions.