Christopher C. Fennell

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Christopher C. Fennell is an anthropologist and lawyer who currently is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in historical archaeology focusing on African-American culture and heritage and their social relationships with European-Americans in the United States from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries. As well as teaching anthropology, Fennell also teaches courses in the College of Law and the Department of Landscape Architecture. He has also published many articles in renowned archaeology journals, has completed a new book, Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World, is editor of the African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter, and an associate of the editorial board of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology.

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[edit] Education

Fennell completed his Master’s Degree in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. After his time at Pennsylvania, he went on to get his J.D. in 1989 from Georgetown University Law Center where he was Research Editor of the American Criminal Law Review for Volume 26 (1988-1989); he also managed the final review of all articles as well as being the chair of the committee for selecting articles for publication. In 2000 he received an M.A. in anthropology from the University of Virginia. In 2003, Fennell completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia, where he specialized in historical archaeology and African Diaspora archaeology. (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008).

[edit] Teaching

From 1999-2000, Fennell was an instructor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He taught a course on witchcraft and magic that he designed himself. He also taught a demanding “six-week Field School in Historical Archaeology theory and methods which included excavation, surveying, artifact and documentary analysis” (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008). In the spring of 2001, Fennell was an instructor at the School of Policy Studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. He taught a class on cross-cultural anthropology that incorporated an “analysis of diverse cultures and economic, environmental, class, gender, and ethnic dynamics.” (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008). During the fall of 2003, Fennell was a lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. He taught an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology that integrated the basics “of anthropology’s four sub-fields, history of the humankind, and diversity of cultures.” (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008). From 2003 to 2004, Fennell was Adjunct Professor of Law and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas where he taught two courses entitled, “Anthropology and Law” and “Social Norms and the Law.” From 2004 until now, Fennell has been Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, Illinois. He is also a staff member in the College of Law, teaching interdisciplinary lectures in anthropology and law, the Department of Landscape Architecture, the African American Studies Program, and the Center for African Studies. (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008).

[edit] Other work experience

Fennell has not only been teaching in universities for many years, but also has had a successful career in editorial and referee work. From 1998 to the present, he has been editor and co-founder (with James Deetz and Patricia Scott Deetz) of an online based publication of the Plymouth Colony Archive Project, which is an “ethnohistorical and archaeological analyses and historical texts” (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008). This project has been acknowledged by the National Endowment for the Humanities and "peer-reviewed for outstanding intellectual quality, superior design, and educational impact." (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008). Since 2004, Fennell has been an article and book manuscript referee for various publications including, American Anthropologist, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, and Mid-Continental Journal of Archaeology. As Editor of the African Diaspora Archaeology Network and Newsletter since 2005, Fennell has helped with current research related to the archaeology and history of people of African descent. Finally, Fennell has been an editorial board member of International Journal of Historical Archaeology since 2005. Excavations and Research

Along with teaching full time, Fennell has been very engaged in working on the New Philadelphia Site and Association, a plot of land in Pike County, Illinois. According to the history of the site (Center for Heritage Resource Studies, “New Philadelphia” 1995), in 1836 an African-American named Frank McWorter worked hard enough to eventually buy his freedom, and settled in the hills between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, known as Pike County, Illinois. As owner of much of the land, he had it surveyed and began to sell out plots of land. As both black and whites bought property, McWorter and other black members of the community were under constant threat of being sold down the Mississippi River by slave traders because of the short distance to slave territory. Racism continued to prosper once the frontier closed, and New Philadelphia expansion seemed to come to a halt. As a railroad was built bordering a neighboring community, the town continued to become closed in until only a few homes and families remained. These days only prairies remain with no evidence of a once flourishing community.

During the course of three long weekends in October and November of 2002 and March of 2003, Dr. Paul A. Shackel lead a group of archaeologists that incorporated volunteers from the Illinois State Museum, Illinois College, Hannibal-LaGrange College, UI-S, Lincoln Land Community College, and the New Philadelphia Association (which Fennell is a part of) worked at the site. Because there was nothing left of the site, workers had to use topographical and historical maps to find the exact location. Once at the site, they came upon certain plots of land that had many nails, ceramic pieces, and shards of glass, showing obvious signs of a previous settlement. From there, the archaeologists worked and are still working on preserving the land and its history with the New Philadelphia Land Trust. Specifically, Fennell has helped on the site by working with graduate students from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign on improving “mapping and landscape studies of the town site and surrounding area, and expanding the analysis of archival data from nineteenth century newspapers published in the region.” (heritage.umd.edu)

Fennell also has put much dedication towards the African Diaspora Archaeology Network (ADAN) by keeping the website and quarterly newsletter up and running. His passion for preserving African-American archaeology has put him at the center of this archaeological focal point, and has made him an expert in the field. He has written a new book, Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World, and has written several journal articles.

Other research Fennell has been a part of is the study of the upper Potomac and northern Shenandoah region surrounding Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, from the period of 1750 to 1865. In Loudoun Valley, Virginia, he led a six week field school excavating an 18th century house in 1999 as well as excavating St. Peter's Church and School in Harper’s Valley in 2000. During his time in this part of the United States, he examined the ways in which three cultural processes intersected, how social groups formed and “dissipated” over time, how communication and language developed “through the stylistic shaping and display of material culture”, and how “regional exchange systems and competing socio-economic interests deployed across the North Atlantic and within the mid-Atlantic region of America.” (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008). He has examined certain material aspects of these cultures such as house-wares, religious artifacts, and architecture to figure out the connection between the three dynamics formerly mentioned within settlements from the mid 18th to 19th centuries (Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign 2008).

[edit] Works published

  • Fennell, Christopher C. "BaKongo Identity and Symbolic Expression in the Americas," an invited chapter in The Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Toyin Falola and Akin Ogundiran, pp. 210-50, Indiana University Press, 2007.
  • Fennell, Christopher C. "Conjuring Boundaries: Inferring Past Identities from Religious Artifacts," International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 4(4): 281-313 (2000).
  • Fennell, Christopher C. Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World, with a foreword by Robert Farris Thompson. University Press of Florida, 2007.
  • Fennell, Christopher C. "Molded Malevolence: Instrumental Symbolism Rendered in Clay," invited article in Ceramics in America, Vol. 3, pp. 270-273, University Press of New England and the Chipstone Foundation (2003).
  • Fennell, Christopher C. "New Philadelphia: The XYZs of the First Excavations," with Terrance J. Martin and Paul A. Shackel, Living Museum, 66(4): 8-13 (2004/2005).
  • Fennell, Christopher C. 2008. http://www.anthro.uiuc.edu/faculty/cfennell/index.html
  • Fennell, Christopher C. African Diaspora Archaeology Network. March 9 2008. http://www.diaspora.uiuc.edu/
  • Fennell, Christopher C. “Historical Archaeology in Harpers Ferry”. December 14 2007. http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/harper/dissabstract.html

[edit] External links