Colin Loader received his doctoral degree from UCLA in European intellectual history. He came to UNLV in 1986 and teaches courses in modern German history and modern European intellectual history. While he has written on subjects such as Sherlock Holmes and German silent film, his primary research interests are in the history of German sociology between 1890 and 1933 and that discipline's relationship to others such as history economics and philosophy. Among the sociologists he has studied are Karl Mannheim, Max Weber, Alfred Weber and Werner Sombart.

Among his publications are Alfred Weber and the Crisis of Culture, 1890-1933 (New York, 2012), The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim (Cambridge, 1985), Karl Mannheim's Sociology as Political Education (with David Kettler, New Brunswick, 2002) and articles in The Journal of Modern History, CLIO, Sociological Theory, Film and History, The Canadian Journal of Sociology and German Studies Review.