Timothy J. Colton is Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies and the Chair of the Department of Government. His main interest is Russian and post-Soviet government and politics.

He is the author of The Dilemma of Reform in the Soviet Union (1986); Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (1995), which was named best scholarly book in government and political science by the Association of American Publishers; Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia (2000); and Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: The Russian Elections of 1999 and 2000 (with Michael McFaul, 2003). He is currently writing a book on the statecraft of Boris Yeltsin and coordinating a joint project on the post-Communist state.

He was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a member of the Joint Committee on Soviet Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, and vice-chairman of the National Council for East European, Russian, and Eurasian Research. He is currently a member of the editorial board of World Politics and Post-Soviet Affairs.

Timothy J. Colton holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University, 1974.