About

Christopher C. Fennell is an anthropologist and lawyer with degrees including an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, a JD from Georgetown University (1989), and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (2003). He is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, specializing in historical archaeology, diaspora studies, and legal anthropology. Additionally, he serves as a yearly Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. His empirical research focuses on trans-Atlantic historical archaeology and the dynamics of social group affiliations and lifeways among Europeans, Africans, and various social groups within the Americas. His work employs interpretative frameworks that address social group identities, ethnic group dynamics and racialization, diaspora studies, critical heritage studies, regional systems and commodity chains, stylistic and symbolic elements of material culture, consumption patterns, and the analysis of craft and industrial enterprises. Beyond his primary appointments, Fennell is an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Landscape Architecture, where he offers courses on landscape analysis and surveying techniques, and a member of the College of Law faculty, providing interdisciplinary seminars for graduate and law students. He is also a faculty affiliate of several centers and departments including the Center for African Studies, the Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretative Theory, and the Department of African American Studies, where he teaches courses addressing African diaspora subjects and issues of racialization. Fennell is the founding editor of the Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage and the Restorative Justice in Heritage & Archaeology Studies book series. His scholarly achievements have been recognized with awards such as the 2009 John L. Cotter Award and the 2020 Daniel G. Roberts Award for Excellence in Public Historical Archaeology from the Society for Historical Archaeology, as well as the 2010 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities and a University Scholar Award (2014-2017). Fennell has collaborated on multi-year research projects exploring African-American craft innovations and industrial-scale production in the Edgefield Pottery District in South Carolina, cultural landscapes and the intersections of tradition and modernity in west Ireland, and the social history of New Philadelphia, Illinois, a demographically integrated town founded by a free African American in 1836. His work reflects a commitment to public scholarship and anti-racism education within historical archaeology, contributing significantly to the understanding of African diaspora heritage and the complexities of social identities and cultural expressions in the Americas.

Research topics

• Sociology
• History
• Geography
• Archaeology
• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Anthropology
• Ancient history
• Cartography
• Gender studies
• Communication
• Mathematics
• Developmental psychology

Selected publications

• Archaeology of the African Diaspora

  Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology · 2025-02-17

  reference-entry1st authorCorresponding

  Archaeological investigations have uncovered the legacies of a remarkable diversity of African diaspora populations in the Americas. Overcoming the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, captive Africans further developed myriad forms of cultural knowledge and practices drawn from their homeland cultures and conveyed those aspects of heritage to their descendants and social affiliates. Special knowledge of agricultural industries led to transformed landscapes. Resilience and fights for freedom were represented in self-emancipation, rebellion communities, reverence of burial grounds, and commemorations of lost settlements and ancestors across terrains and seascapes. Adaptive strategies and creativity were expressed in material culture production of pottery, household spaces, foodways, and healthcare. Elements of cosmologies from multiple African cultures were integrated to form new religions and forms of cultural heritage.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2025-06-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter presents an introduction focused on methods for analyzing and addressing heritage commemorations employed to combat oppression. I first discuss general aspects of interpretative frameworks in which one can analyze the characteristics and impacts of commemorations, including concepts of collective memories, material expressions, and intersecting scales of heritage influences. I next explore the workings of such monuments and responses to them in brief case studies drawn from locations in the United States, South Africa, China, Japan, and Australia. I chose these locations to complement the diversity of geographies addressed in greater detail in the other chapters of this book. These brief case studies provide insights as to key facets at play in efforts to promote commemorations of underprivileged peoples and combat continuing elements of oppression. I then provide an overview of the case studies presented in the following chapters and the ways in which common themes and stratagems are manifest in those diverse initiatives.

  PublisherDOI

• Combating Oppression with New Commemorations

  2025-06-16

  book1st authorCorresponding

  "Combating Oppression with New Commemorations examines the ways in which marginalized groups can confront oppressive regimes through commemorations and advocacy of their own heritage. Presenting case studies from across the globe, the volume provides invaluable insights into the diverse strategies and various disciplinary approaches being used to counter oppression through commemorations of the heritage of marginalized groups. Reminding the reader that such commemorations are often created by individuals who have directly confronted traumas of oppression, contributors emphasize that their survivance, successes, and vitality are tributes to human resilience and creativity. Chapters also demonstrate how such commemorations can advance recognition of the group’s diverse legacies and cultural identity and help enhance social and economic equities for that population across local, regional, and national scales. It is also made clear that they can provide resources for reconciliation negotiations with other social collectives who seek to oppress the marginalized group. These dynamics can facilitate truth-telling, accountability, recovery of unrecorded histories, revitalization, increments of healing, and efforts to avoid future repetitions of past and present social traumas. Combating Oppression with New Commemorations will be essential reading for academics, and students working in heritage studies, archaeology, anthropology, material culture studies, landscape analysis, and museum studies. It will also be of great interest to practitioners and activists around the world."

  PublisherDOI

• John L. Cotter Award in Historical Archaeology: Alicia D. Odewale

  Historical Archaeology · 2024-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Grappling with Monuments of Oppression

  2024-11-13

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• African Diaspora Heritage in the Americas

  2024-07-18

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter addresses a remarkable diversity of legacies and heritage for African diaspora populations in the Americas. Overcoming the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, captive Africans further developed myriad forms of cultural knowledge and practices drawn from their homeland cultures and conveyed those aspects of heritage to their descendants and social affiliates. Special knowledge of agricultural industries led to transformed landscapes. Resilience and fights for freedom were represented in self-emancipation, rebellion communities, reverence of burial grounds, and commemorations of lost settlements and ancestors across terrains and seascapes. Elements of cosmologies from multiple African cultures were integrated to form new religions and forms of cultural heritage. Over the past six centuries, African diaspora peoples have pursued vitality in their cultural heritage and continue to fight for reparative justice to address European colonial wrongs.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2024-11-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter presents an introduction focused on methods for analyzing and addressing monuments of oppression. I first discuss general aspects of interpretative frameworks in which one can analyze the characteristics and impacts of oppressive smonuments. Activist responses to such memorials include facets of restorative justice. I next explore the workings of such monuments and responses to them in brief case studies drawn from locations in Germany, Italy, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and South Africa. I chose those locations to complement the diversity of geographies addressed in greater detail in the other chapters of this book. These brief case studies provide insights as to key facets at play in efforts to grapple with oppressive monuments. I then provide an overview of the case studies presented in the following chapters and the ways in which common themes and stratagems are manifest in those diverse initiatives.

  PublisherDOI

• Pulpits and Stones: African American Terrains of Action and Memory

  Historical Archaeology · 2021 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • History
  • Archaeology
  • Geography
  PublisherDOI

• Extraction

  University Press of Florida eBooks · 2021-09-21

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Proponents of European colonial interests were seduced by dreams of mineral wealth flowing from the Americas. When torrents of gold and silver proved elusive, they prosecuted their investments along other commodity lines. In time, the mineral wealth would be exposed in episodes of strenuous extraction. This chapter examines case studies of the facets of extractive industries revealed through archaeology. The expanding transport arteries discussed in the previous chapter impacted natural resource harvesting, such as lumber cutting in West Virginia. Turning to mineral mining, an array of structures and equipment populate the terrains examined by archaeologists. Copper mines of the Great Lakes show impacts of methods developed in Cornwall, England. Moving west in the United States, one sees gargantuan operations in Montana and new techniques in California that denuded the landscape. Coal fields across the country were worked by waves of immigrants and experienced ethnic and economic class interactions. Tragic clashes of management and workers ensued. Finally, oil derricks and shale strata present domains of petroleum harvesting and corresponding challenges for the workers and their families.

  PublisherDOI

• Forges, Furnaces, and Metallurgy

  University Press of Florida eBooks · 2021-09-21

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter first surveys the diverse methods for melting and shaping iron. I then consider a series of case studies in which archaeological research has contributed to understanding the strategic choices of ironmasters as they confronted myriad contingencies and opportunities. Archaeologists explored early smelting activities in pueblos in New Mexico in the 1600s. Those activities were dwarfed by enterprises launched in British North America in the 1700s. Large-scale investments on the Saugus River in Massachusetts and in Trenton, New Jersey, were followed by more circumspect investments in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. An early form of vertically integrated enterprise in an iron plantation in South Carolina, was exceeded by far-flung, interdependent networks of production at the Tredegar works of Virginia. The remarkable resilience of women in managing family-run iron plants played out in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Notable technological innovations were undertaken at iron manufacturers in Tennessee and New York. Class dynamics shaped the residential landscape of managers and workers in Michigan. Finally, a quest for accelerated water power to propel iron foundries in West Virginia cost little in capital and a staggering price in lives lost.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• REU Site: Interdisciplinary Investigations at New Philadelphia

  NSF · $285k · 2008–2012

Frequent coauthors

• Lee Anne Fennell

  5 shared

• Judit Gervain

  4 shared

• Paul A. Shackel

  University of Maryland, College Park

  4 shared

• Caterina Marino

  Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine

  4 shared

• Kathryn Fay

  Park University

  3 shared

• Terrance J. Martin

  Illinois State Museum

  2 shared

• Mikołaj Hernik

  UiT The Arctic University of Norway

  2 shared

• Richard Clément

  University of Ottawa

  2 shared

Education

• PhD, Anthropology

  University of Virginia

  2013

• JD

  Georgetown University Law Center

  1986

• MA, American Civilization

  University of Pennsylvania

  1985

Awards & honors

• John L. Cotter Award recipient, 2009, for outstanding schola…
• Gustave O. Arlt Award recipient, 2010, for outstanding contr…
• Award for Distinguished Service 2012-2013, Department of Ant…
• University Scholar Award, 2014-2017, University of Illinois,…
• Daniel G. Roberts Award for Excellence in Public Historical…