Robert Harkins is a historian of the early modern and modern world. His wide-ranging research interests include religion, politics, and society in the early modern world, violence and confessional conflict, political thought, corruption, and the origins of the transatlantic slave trade.

He received a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara, a M.A. from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. His research has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.

His teaching interests include early modern and modern world history, European history, the Reformation and the Renaissance, intellectual history, and various other subjects related to political, religious, social, and economic history. Recent course offerings have focused on a wide range of topics and themes, including the history of religious violence, the history of corruption, and the history of late medieval and early modern Europe.

He has also taught classes on the digital humanities, research methodologies, academic study, and professionalization for undergraduates.