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Tilghman considers herself an optimist, but does feel globally optimistic. She doesn’t feel that the right people are stepping up to leadership, and can’t see solutions to major issues because […]

Tilghman says that there are many forces that have shaped humanity such as evolution, natural selection, technology, the Internet, and our ability to create a more comfortable environment. She feels […]

Tilghman says that one philosopher who she feels “gets it” is a fellow faculty member names Kwame Anthony Appiah. He has written about the nature of ethnic, national, and religious […]

Tilghman is inspired by people who strive for excellence, who dream, who have big ideas and are not concerned with obstacles, and who can execute their big ideas.

Tilghman was born and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She feels that Canada's policies of putting the group before the individual has definitely influenced her. She also mentions that her […]

Might does not make right.

We need to restore our stature among other nations.

Writing should be judged by its quality, not its venue.

Institutions of global governance need to be reformed.

We need to manage globalization more equitably.

The US is wholly unique culture that has grown out of an enlightened liberal tradition.

Media failed us in the lead up to the Iraq War.

Ultimately, the people have the power.

Not broken but not working as well as it should.

A moment like 1969.

Freedom according to Peter Beinart.

A not so formidable foe.

Democracy is essentially a good thing for the world.

America’s obligation to protect other countries and vice versa.

The challenges of imposing intellectual order on human actions.

By our technology or our behavior?

A word from the poet on his hopeless optimism.

We should be over war, Collins says.

If we start doing something about climate change now, it’ll be a lot different from starting five years from now.

What’s happening now is tribalism.

A haiku is like smashing an atom.

Artists are just people who somehow didn’t allow that natural ability in childhood to be killed off.

A poet is not terribly unhappy that poetry has a small audience.

Colins’ poetry is “readable.”

“When you’re not writing, there’s an anxiety about whether you will ever write again,” says Collins.