Austin Washington is the new Dean of Flagstaff Cluster and an instructor in Philosophy and Religious Studies, focusing on social ethics. Washington formerly played Major League Soccer with the Chicago Fire and enjoys drawing cartoons and learning new languages. He previously worked at Phillips Exeter Academy and Boston University.
“What drew me to the community was the opportunity to work with students in a slightly different capacity. Instead of just being in the classroom or…instead of focusing my energy on the classroom, Andover provided me an opportunity to be with students in a meaningful way, thinking about how we learn in a residential community. Taking on the Cluster Dean role allowed me to think creatively with an incredible group of people about how to take advantage of the dorms as an important site of learning.”
2. What is your favorite thing about Flagstaff so far as the new Cluster Dean?
“The munches…to be with students in a space where they just get food from here is really fun. The pressure is low, the food can be good…and people are kind and welcoming. Even in the basement of the home that I live in, people are welcoming me, so that’s been [a] high point so far.”
3. Why do you like teaching social ethics? What do you find most interesting about social ethics?
“My graduate study [was] in social ethics… In my graduate work, I was able to work with professors, social ethicists, who were asking really insightful, thoughtful questions. It’s nice to hear people think about possible solutions or proposals [to problems] they might have, or how [those solutions] should be organized. For me, the excitement of a good question was a surprise. To hear people repeatedly offer questions that invited me to think deeply was a skill I wanted to learn and a gift I wanted to give. Those [professors] were some of the most memorable mentors I ever encountered. I hope to be at least as thoughtful as them at some point in my life.”
4. What are your thoughts on American Pentecostalism and traditions of protest among Black American religious groups?
“That’s what I spent the last few years writing about… I’m really interested in what people do when they are engaged in worship. When I think of worship, I’m thinking about people acting at their most sincere with regard to what is ultimately important for them: the actions people undertake when they know that the most important thing in the world to them…[is] at stake. This is what I’m thinking about in my own research; how music-making, preaching, dancing, and praying are really important for how people try to transform the world that they live in. Not only how they transform, but how they make the world they live in. In a very real sense, they are crafting the world, they are putting the world together, they are building the world that they want to inhabit. They are doing that through something seemingly simple and tangential: singing, preaching, dancing, and praying.”
5. You used to play for the Chicago Fire. What was your experience with major league soccer and the team you were on?
“Chicago [Fire] was the highlight of my athletic career… I got to play with a lot of people who became easy friends. Playing sports, you can be in a team environment that can be hard, where people can be less than friendly or even confrontational… In Chicago, the little surprise, was I was playing with people I had admired since I was 13… [When] I got into the locker room, they were even more kind than I could have imagined… I was welcomed into a group that was really kind, but also excellent [at soccer]. These people were some of the best in the world, so it was fun to play with them… The pressure to learn in a really high-intensity, demanding environment, to develop new skills and new abilities was something that was both terrifying and exciting. There were times when things were hard, but most of the time it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and met some really cool people, and I got to enjoy playing a game that I love.”
6. Why did you stop and go back to your studies?
“After my second year in Chicago, our team got a new coach. The new coach had a new vision for the team that did not include me, so I was released. I went back to school, finished my undergraduate degree, and…[pursued] graduate school… I went from [an] economics [degree] to theology. I guess for most people right now it would sound contradicting, or at least confusing…theology allowed me to think over big problems that I had been mulling over for a long time: to think with a lot of theories, so a lot of heavy stuff, and trying to put that in the hands of everyday people and everyday environments. Once I figured out that I really enjoyed trying to translate theory into everyday practice, I was hooked.”
7. You’re also a coach for soccer. How does that correlate to playing professionally versus coaching?
“Playing soccer, I learned a lot about myself; I learned a lot about working in teams and groups. I learned a lot about what it means to follow someone’s leadership and what I consider to be good leadership. My
effort as a coach here is to model good leadership. My effort is to provide whatever insight I can to athletes who want to play beyond high school and college, but also to remind people of the value of having fun… If we’re not having fun playing a game, there’s a problem.”
8. You mentioned you like drawing cartoons. How did you get started?
“My older brother would always draw and doodle on stuff, and my uncle drew a lot… He was really good with [a] pencil. I wanted to do what they did, so I started drawing when I was younger, and it’s a hobby that I placed a lot of value on. I thought I was kind of good at it… I wanted to keep trying to get better, so I would work on certain characters or styles of drawings. I started creating cartoons with my niece and nephew; they were living on the other side of the country…and it was really rare that I would get to hang out with them. When I got pictures or stories from them, I would try to draw the story or at least represent the story in characters, because [I] couldn’t be there [in person]. I would try to create the humor [in their stories]… That’s what got me excited about cartoons.”
9. You are also into learning languages. What languages are you learning?
“Most intensely, I’m learning Spanish… I’m [also] trying to learn French, so I was talking to Coach [Benjamin] Duclos, the assistant coach for the JV Boys soccer team, and he’s been a helpful inspiration there as well. Whether it be TV or a podcast, I’m trying to just take in as much of the language as possible. I feel most confident in Spanish; [in] French, a little less confident. I’ve taken some Italian as well, but it’s not nearly as good as the Spanish or the French, but it’s there.”
10. Who is your biggest inspiration and how do they impact you every day?
“My biggest inspiration, at the risk of being cliche, [is] my parents. My parents have had an extraordinary impact on me. My dad has never been a teacher…but he is the model I have of what good teaching looks like. My dad was remarkably patient and willing to let us wonder, and that’s something I hope I can embody when I’m with students in my classroom… My mother was the biggest example of what it means to be a committed professional: [she] took her job very seriously and she was very good at [it]. In that way, I look up to my mom as someone who exhibits all of the qualities of what it means to be a dedicated professional. Those two people have been [my] biggest role models, and continue to be the biggest role models in my life.”
