Christopher C. Fennell
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Law
Chris Fennell, associate professor of anthropology and Law, has a background in anthropology, archaeology, and law, and is currently principal investigator conducting archaeological investigations at the 19th century town site of New Philadelphia, Illinois, under a grant award by the National Science Foundation. Professor Fennell was a practicing attorney for eight years in the areas of antitrust, contracts, product liability, torts, false claims, commercial real estate, and securities disputes.
He taught at the University of Virginia, Roosevelt University, Texas State University, and the University of Texas Law School before joining the faculty of the Department of Anthropology in 2004, and taught as a visiting professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School in early 2010. He has offered courses on anthropology and the law, social norms and the law, and a variety of archaeology subjects, and has received a number of awards for teaching excellence.
He also serves as the director of Graduate Studies and associate head of the Department of Anthropology and as a member of the board of directors of the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage and Museum Practices. His publications include the book Crossroads and Cosmologies: Diasporas and Ethnogenesis in the New World (University Press of Florida, 2007), for which Fennell received the 2009 John Cotter award from the Society for Historical Archaeology and the 2010 Gustave Arlt award from the Council for Graduate Studies for outstanding contributions to the humanities.