Colin Phelan is an Instructor in History and Social Science, a coach for JV Boys Lacrosse and JV Boys Hockey, and a house counselor in Draper Cottage. Prior to his arrival at Andover, Phelan earned a one-year Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship, taught at Bengali Senior Secondary School, and led U.S. Embassy-sponsored “Access Programs” with communities around North India. Phelan’s hidden talent is slacklining, which involves balancing on a length of flat webbing tensioned by two stable points.
What initially drew you to join the Andover community?
This school’s commitment to being intentionally diverse and educating Youth from Every Quarter are values the school really abides by and really attracted me in the application process. This was my first choice. I knew I wanted to work here for quite a bit as I was finishing up graduate school and I’m really excited to be here.
What sparked your interest in history?
I love history. I’m a big fan of narrative journalism as well, and creative nonfiction. An amazing thing about this place is that you can do interdisciplinary teaching. Maybe at some point, I could work with someone in the English Department to develop a course that is based on narrative journalism or creative nonfiction. I also love languages, and I think the discipline of history requires that you also know other languages, in order to work in archives and interview people. I’ve enjoyed the discipline of history because I can ask questions about the past and simultaneously pursue my interests in language as well.
You’re fluent in Hindi and Urdu, and also a little bit of Persian and Spanish. What language would you want to learn next?
I’ve started doing Japanese on Duolingo, and I’m the second faculty member going on the Learning in the World (LITW) trip to Japan in the summer. I will most certainly not be fluent by then, but it’s fun to learn because a lot of times you can only really learn about a place, let alone the history of a place, by learning the language. [Learning Japanese] is very much an upward climb. It’s really difficult. Even with Hindi, it’s still in the Indo-European family, so grammatically it’s actually similar. Japanese is really hard, but I’m just getting started.
You wrote your dissertation on the connection between tourism development and Hindu nationalism in Uttarakhand. Would you say that tourism is more of a positive or negative force?
It’s complex. With tourism development in the region that I studied, there are a lot of economic benefits. People can gain economic and social mobility through this development and through these opportunities. [However], in this region as well, in my perspective, there’s been a little bit of a lopsided development of tourism in the region. That can be problematic, especially when, for example, during Covid-19, people stopped traveling entirely. When the region is so increasingly dependent [on tourism], the money doesn’t come. Another example is in 2013. This region that I studied had a massive earthquake, and a lot of tourists said they were not going to go, so they had a couple of years where the tourist inflows went significantly down. This region in India has not had as many economic opportunities in the past, so on one end, this can be viewed as a positive, but it’s not always resilient.
You wrote a book called “The Local School,” which paid tribute to the value of local schools and community. What inspired you to write it?
I spent some time living in parts of India with a couple of the people whom I discussed in the book. These people are two of my very close friends. I was inspired to write the book because of my experiences living, working, and studying in India after my undergraduate studies. I always knew I had a unique story that I was working with… I lived in eastern India in Cuttack and also in Delhi, and the most memorable part of the process was meeting these people, these two really amazing friends from whom I’ve learned, and about whom the book is largely based on.
You’ve previously stated that there is a need for an education renaissance in America. How does this belief translate into your teachings or day-to-day life?
This was an observation I had when I was studying in a classroom in eastern India. Learning should be a lifestyle, and it shouldn’t be something that is transactional. One great thing about the students [at Andover] is that a lot of students are so curious and interested in learning for learning’s sake. That’s what education should be about. It should be exploring the world through your own eyes on your own terms and taking creative risks.
How did your experience as a Fulbright-Nehru scholar in Delhi shape your perspective on teaching and cross-cultural education?
I worked at a Delhi government school, which was awesome and essentially a public school. I really loved my experience there. I was able to learn about a whole different education system and different types of teaching. I had a lot of students in my classes too, way more than I’ve had in my United States teaching experiences. That was both a challenge but also an immense opportunity. I speak Hindi, so it’s an amazing opportunity for me to grow in that regard as well and to use that in the classroom too.
What’s your go-to comfort food after a long day of teaching?
The first thing that comes to mind is the buffalo chicken pizza from Depop Pizza. I’ve only been here for a couple of months, but I’ve had it twice already. I’ve always loved buffalo chicken pizza.
Can you speak more about slack lining?
I’ve done [slack lining] in the town common and around campus a few times. I really enjoy it. I knew about it in high school, but I didn’t really do it. Then in college, I bought one, and I started doing it all the time, and made some friends through it. It’s really good exercise. It’s also really meditative. You get up there and you can’t think of anything except staying up.
Do you have a favorite hiking trail or spot? Solo hiking or hiking with friends?
There are some great hiking spots in the UK. The peaks aren’t as high, but it’s still really beautiful. It’s really fun hiking through pastures full of sheep and then having a nice fish and chips at a pub afterwards. I’ve also been fortunate to hike in Norway as well, during some winter hiking, which is really beautiful. Although it’s really dark, so I only had a couple hours to do it, but [there are] so many amazing places. I do a lot of hiking with my wife. We love to have adventures together, but with friends too.
