I'm a bureaucrat with academic aspirations. 9-5, I investigate misconduct complaints against police officers for the municipal government. In my spare time, I work on my research projects and PhD applications (I hope to start in 2018).

I love looking at art, visiting esoteric religious sites, researching obscure historical events, and browsing in used book stores.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love to take weekend trips to explore new cities (and their museums). I also travel semi-regularly to conduct research in various archives or attend conferences related to my academic interests.

I've couch-surfed in Rhode Island, Indiana, Virginia, Toronto, and Pennsylvania. One of my hosts made a wonderful, bibliophilic music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8. Another stayed friends with me, and I'm still visiting him four years later. Each place I've stayed, I've had a great time meeting new people and learning about their interests and lives.

Interests

Aesthetics, history, race/ethnicity/identity, migration.

For more, see https://independent.academia.edu/JulianColePhillips.

Currently researching: American Protestant missions in the Middle East in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

• books
• traveling
• teaching
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

I used to work for an antiquarian bookseller, and I often think about books as material objects (rather than as texts). At the moment, I'm interested in learning about ways that colonized societies adapted printing from England, France, and other countries that adopted letterpress in the 15th century.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In May 2010, two friends and I spent an hour in the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

In January 2012, a monk accidentally locked me in a church on an island off of Istanbul.

Recent visits: Fallingwater (PA), New Vrindaban (WV), Fundy National Park (NB), Sabbathday Lake (ME), Monticello (VA), Detroit.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Egypt, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Palestine, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States