Richard J Tilley – Ethicist, Writer, Poet

I continue to work on what I call the theory of monetized empathy, which states that people are more likely to be oppressed by other people if they lack financial well-being. This is not to be confused. Intersectionality still applies. This takes nothing away from intersectionality.

I immersed myself into Violence Studies, with the belief that violence is not inevitable and that if society is to overcome violence, it must be understood. I have also worked on a self-imposed regimented program and independent research related to sociology and radical geography. I have an extensive scholarly library that I have built up over the years. My research is based on my continued focus on history and literature. I also incorporated my research on Violence Studies and Space and Place and some elements of cultural anthropology. It was challenging to design a self-taught program that I could do. Elements of this research was more difficult on my own. At the risk of being exceedingly presumptuous, if not arrogant, I conjured the terms “biolence,” “Epitome scaling,” “Share-metrics,” “violence-narratives,” “violence-customs ,” “socio-ontological denominationalism,” and “nuclear religiosity” in my sometimes available writings on post-violence societies and feminist theology (I thought I came up with “masculinarity,” but I checked and someone else thought of it first).

I am a former long-time musician. I have been writing poetry for roughly 30 years. I do not write poetry with that goal of publication in mind, but rather, attempts to capture the healing of truths. I am writing non-fiction, and sometimes fiction, with the goal of eventual proper publication, despite how late in life such acts would be.

I am a fervent believer in a greatly reformed educational system. I believe that holds the key, or at least, a significant leaping off point to maintaining and initiating societal reforms. Yes, to many this is obvious, but implementing such an endeavor and to what extent it should be calibrated is something I have also worked on, through writings again only sometimes available online. There are additional theological writings and writings on violence research that are not online.

In the rare event that I need to be contacted, my email is rtilley4-AT-alumni.jh-DOT-edu (sorry, but writing an email like that really does work in avoiding spam sweeping algorithms).

I have a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University (mostly philosophy and ethics courses, but not restricted to that. Also digital humanities and history). I also hold an interdisciplinary liberal arts degree from Portland State University where I focused on Women’s Studies, Conflict Resolution, and Literature. Additionally I attended an HBCU, Bowie State University, where I majored in English with a concentration in Africana. I took more than enough classes for a BA in English, without earning the degree, and more than enough classes to minor in History. It all started at community college believe it or not. From community college to grad school at Johns Hopkins. It was quite a ride!

My master’s thesis was titled, Provoking God. It was a theological analysis of social justice in the Hebrew Bible from a feminist perspective with the overall argument that we have the right to challenge God to interceded on behalf of social justice. What I can say objectively is that what we see in the world, what others are willing to do to other people and the involved sociological, ontological, and relational indices of the result and actions of what God would Be – only goes further to prove the existence of an Abrahamic God. This argument is not emotive, but what anyone could see if they have completed sober close readings of the reference texts and not just what is taught about those texts.