Celebrating the Influence and Career of Dr. Michael Collins

We honor the global impact of Dr. Michael Collins as he retires from nearly four decades of wonderful work with TFAS.

Posted on 02 Mar 2023

“Come to school! Come to school!  Before they kill you all, come to school!” While I had on many occasions used these words, spoken by a school teacher in Athol Fugard’s play, My Children, My Africa, to welcome students to The Fund’s Institutes at Georgetown, they had never seemed so true as they did in Athens at the first International Institute on Political and Economic Studies in July, 1996.”  - Dr. Michael Collins 

It is made abundantly clear in the words above, written by Professor Collins regarding his work with The Fund for American Studies, that a born educator both found and lived out his calling with earnestness and passion. Dr. Michael Collins, an English Professor at Georgetown University since 1981, has dedicated his life to educating the next generation. Professor Collins’ investment in students was not limited to young people attending Georgetown; Collins spent over three decades changing the lives of nearly 4,000 students across the globe through TFAS Programs. His impact is immeasurable, and as Dr. Collins closes this chapter of his career, The Fund for American Studies extends our utmost gratitude. 

Professor Collins began his involvement with TFAS shortly after his arrival at Georgetown as the dean of the School for Summer and Continuing Education. It was his work in this position that made TFAS summer programs possible for a majority of the 43 years that TFAS conducted programs on Georgetown’s campus. TFAS Chairman Randal Teague recounts the impact of Collins' leadership on TFAS programs, saying, “He led for decades the faculty team which brought the key element of humanities to the economic and political science curricula of our summer programs at Georgetown.” 

In 1990, Collins also served as a founding faculty member for what is now the TFAS Business and Government Relations program, originally the Bryce Harlow Institute on Business and Government Affairs. That same year, Collins, along with a team of other faculty, began to teach a class titled “Powers and Values in Organizations” to TFAS summer participants in that program. Teague remembers that “Michael brought to the classroom the insights of the human condition from literary depictions of life, including those of 'man and the state' over centuries.” An avid lover of Shakespeare and other playwrights, Collins never failed to include literary wisdom in his curriculum, enriching students’ experiences with lively discussions on ethics and what it meant to create flourishing organizations and societies.  

In 1993, The Fund for American Studies decided that it was time to expand its programs to Eastern Europe. “It was such a success at Georgetown,” shared Teague, “TFAS decided it needed to be shared more broadly.” Dr. Collins was an integral member of the four-person team who explored the possibilities of starting a program in that part of the world and became a founding faculty member for TFAS Programs at Charles University in Prague. Collins taught a course titled “The Good Society” for 10 summers in Prague, bringing to over 800 students what Teague defined as “understandings of America and the West which resonated with students desiring intellectual freedom but not knowing exactly its intricate nature and how to achieve it.” This year, TFAS celebrates its 30-year anniversary in Prague, and in doing so, honors the dedication Dr. Collins exhibited to make that program possible.  

Shortly after the birth of the Prague program, TFAS expanded its international arm to Greece, launching the first student program in Athens in 1996. Collins also served as a founding faculty member for this program, teaching a total of 17 summers and nearly 1,500 students in Greece, year after year inviting eager learners from the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, the United States and the Middle East to critically engage their minds, in hopes that these students might one day make the world a better place. “When I return to Greece each summer with my friend and colleague Frank Ambrosio, I do so with the hope that what we teach may help our students to make their lives useful,” shared Collins, “to make real in the days to come the marvelous possibilities that we all...have together imagined for them.” 

“When I return to Greece each summer with my friend and colleague Frank Ambrosio, I do so with the hope that what we teach may help our students to make their lives useful,” shared Collins, “to make real in the days to come the marvelous possibilities that we all...have together imagined for them.” 


Several years ago, Collins shared with TFAS a reflection on his time spent teaching for the TFAS international programs. He recounted a myriad of stories and memories, and concluded by shared the following: “Above all I remember the willingness of so many students to engage seriously with the proposals that Frank and I have made to them in our classes and their affirmation over the years that we shall simply replicate the violence and hatreds of the past if we do not, as Seamus Heaney puts it, make space in our 'reckoning and imagining for the marvelous as well as for the murderous'.”  

Dr. Collins leaves a legacy of thoughtful imagination and change for the thousands of students he taught over the course of his involvement with The Fund for American Studies. Ibrahim Al-Marashi ‘01, a student of Dr. Collins in Crete and later a teaching colleague in Prague, expressed his gratitude for Collins: “Never could I imagine that the professor who gave my inspirational lessons while I was a TFAS student in Crete in 200, would be a colleague of mine when I became a TFAS instructor in Prague from 2013 to the present. I will miss the lessons [he] gave me, not just in Crete, but every summer in Prague..." 

TFAS President Roger Ream '76 encapsulates the impact of his career well: “Mike Collins is what everyone looks for in a college professor but is all too rare. He has a passion for teaching. He invites consideration of the important questions about life’s most pressing mysteries. And he presents material in ways that make it stay with the student for years to come. TFAS was fortunate to have him in our lives for four decades.” 

Mike Collins is what everyone looks for in a college professor but is all too rare. He has a passion for teaching. He invites consideration of the important questions about life’s most pressing mysteries. And he presents material in ways that make it stay with the student for years to come. TFAS was fortunate to have him in our lives for four decades.” 


TFAS Honors Dr. Collins 

As Professor Collins concludes his rich career with TFAS, we want to bring together TFAS alumni to say thank you. We hope you'll join us in honoring Dr. Collins with words of well wishes, fond memories and thanks. Please use the button below to submit your well wishes! 

Send Well Wishes

TFAS will also be celebrating Dr. Collins with a special reception at TFAS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on March 28. The evening will include remarks from Dr. Collins and TFAS staff members, as well as a full bar and hors d'oeuvres reception. If you are living in the D.C. area, we would love to have you join us for this special evening. 

RSVP For Evening Reception


Liberty + Leadership Podcast Features Dr. Collins 

Dr. Collins was recently featured on the TFAS Liberty + Leadership Podcast. In this episode, Roger and Dr. Collins discuss their trip to Eastern Europe at the launch of TFAS International in the 90s, the tension between the individual versus the collective, why William Shakespeare is still relevant and why it's critical for students to study history. 

Listen on Spotify