معرفی
Catherine Fennell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, with a joint appointment at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. Her work focuses on the decline and transformation of subsidized housing, a key infrastructure of the 20th century US welfare state, examining how material and social legacies shape politics of difference and collective obligation in urban America.
Her educational background includes:
- PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2009)
- BS from Georgetown University (1999)
Fennell's research combines ethnographic and archival methods to explore urban infrastructure, particularly public housing, and its relationship to social welfare, race, and community. She investigates how material conditions shape social relations and political possibilities in contexts marked by social abandonment, economic disinvestment, and racial segregation. Her work bridges anthropology with urban studies, critical race theory, and environmental justice, with Chicago serving as a primary site for examining urban transformation and welfare reform.
Her publications reveal consistent engagement with themes of materiality, sensory experience, and public memory, particularly regarding how urban infrastructure mediates social relations and political recognition. Fennell's scholarship demonstrates how ruins of public housing become sites for reimagining public engagement with poverty and social welfare.
Her notable achievement includes:
- 2016 Book Prize from the Association of Political and Legal Anthropology for 'Last Project Standing: Civics and Sympathy in Post-Welfare Chicago'
Fennell's academic contributions extend beyond publications to teaching courses like 'WHO CARES' (Spring 2021) that explore obligation, care, and social responsibility in urban contexts. Her interdisciplinary approach connects anthropology with broader discussions about infrastructure, memory, and social justice.
