Timothy B. Powell, Ph.D.

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA 19144

Current Positions:

  • Senior Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania (2011 – present)
  • Consulting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology(2011 – present)
  • Director of Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR), American Philosophical Society (2014 – present)
  • Project Director, Gibagadinamaagoom: An Ojibwe Digital Archive (Penn SAS supported website) (2006 – present)
  • Project Director, Digital Partnerships with Indian Communities (DPIC) (Penn SAS supported website) (2005 – present)

Education:

  • Ph.D., American Literature and History, 1995, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
  • M.A., Department of English, 1987, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
  • B.A., Philosophy and Political Science, 1982, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Publications

Books

  • Native American Oral Literatures,Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature,eds. Jackson Bryer and Paul Lauter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)
  • The Singing Bird: A Cherokee Novel, eds. Timothy B. Powell and Melinda Smith (University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), American Indian Literature and Critical Studies series, edited by Gerald Vizenor
  • Ruthless Democracy: A Multicultural Interpretation of the American Renaissance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000)
  • Beyond the Binary: Reconstructing Cultural Identity in a Multicultural Context, ed. Timothy B. Powell (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999)

Articles

  • “Anthropology of Revitalization: Digitizing the American Philosophical Society’s Native American Collections,” Franz Boas: Ethnographer, Theorist, Activist, Public Intellectual, ed. Regna Darnell, forthcoming from University of Nebraska Press
  • “Steering a Course Set by Thomas Jefferson: New Developments in the Native American collections at the APS,” Transactions, forthcoming.
  • “The Public Scholar: Cultural and Intellectual Diversity in the Digital Humanities,” #alt-academy, ed. Brian Croxall, published by Media Commons: A Digital Scholarly Network, forthcoming.
  • “Center for Native American and Indigenous Research,” American Philosophical Society Newsletter, vol. 16 no. 1, 2014.
  • “New Acquisitions by the Library,” American Philosophical Society Newsletter, vol. 15, no. 1, autumn, 2013.
  • "Connecting Native American Elders to Undergraduates: The Ojibwe Digital Archive Project,"written by Timothy B. Powell and inspired by Larry Aitken, "360: Analysis and Discussion in the Round."Archive 1:2 (2012). Web. [archivejournal]
  • “Digital Repatriation in the Field of Indigenous Anthropology,” Anthropology News, October 2011 (52[7])
  • “Encoding Culture: Building a Digital Archive Based on Traditional Ojibwe Codes of Conduct,” written by Timothy B. Powell and inspired by Larry Aitken,The American Literature Scholar in the Digital Age, eds. Amy Earhart and Andrew Jewell (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2011). Also available on the DigitalCulturalBooks online imprint from University of Michigan Press: The American Literature Scholar in the Digital Age
  • “Building Bridges between Archives and Indian Communities,” News from the American Philosophical Society, American Philosophical Society Press, 12(1), 2010
  • “Negotiating the Cultural Turn in the Digital Humanities,” Online Humanities Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come, ed. Jerome McGann (Houston, TX: Rice University Press, 2010)
  • “Negotiating the Cultural Turn as Universities Adopt a Corporate Model in an Economic Downturn,” Connexions, May 14, 2010
  • “Summoning the Ancestors: The Flying Africans’ Story and its Enduring Legacy,” The Atlantic World and African American Life in the Low Country, 18th-20th Centuries, ed. Philip Morgan (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2010)
  • “A Drum Speaks: Partnership to Create a Digital Archive Based on Traditional Ojibwe Systems of Knowledge,” written by Timothy B. Powell and inspired by Larry Aitken,RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Cultural Heritage, 8(2), fall 2007, pp. 167-179
  • “A Digital Partnership between the Penn Museum and Ojibwe Tribal Historians,” written by Timothy B. Powell and inspired by Larry Aitken, Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, vol. 49, no. 3, winter 2007
  • “Native/American Digital Storytelling: Situating the Cherokee Oral Tradition within American Literary History,” text by Timothy B. Powell, storytelling by Freeman Owle, digital technology by William Weems, Literature Compass, an on-line journal by Blackwell, v. 4 no. 1 (featured in the Literature Compass special cluster on ‘Technology and Literary Studies’), 2007
  • “Recovering Pre-Colonial American Literary History: The Seneca ‘Origin of Stories’ and the Maya Popol Vuh.” A Companion to the Colonial Literatures of America, eds. Susan Castillo and Ivy Schweitzer (NY: Blackwell, 2005).
  • “Digitizing Cherokee Culture: Libraries, Students and the Reservation,” MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, v. 30 no 2, 79-98, 2005
  • “All Colors Flow into Rainbows and Nooses: The Struggle to Define Academic Multiculturalism,” Cultural Critique, no. 55, 152-181, 2003
  • “Ebo’s Landing,” The New Georgia Encyclopedia, http:// (2002)
  • "Postcolonial Theory in an American Context: A Reading of Martin R. Delany's Blake or the Huts of America," The Pre-Occupation of Post-Colonial Studies, eds. Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks and Fawzia Afzal-Khan (Durham, NC: Duke University Press), 347-365, 2000
  • "Narratives Woven in Beads: Reading the Material Culture of the Sioux at the Height of the Ghost Dance Movement," Narrative, lead article in a special Multicultural issue edited by Herman Beavers, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 131-147, 2000
  • "Introduction: Toward a Multicultural Conception of 'American' Identity," Beyond the Binary: Reconstructing Cultural Identity in a Multicultural Context, ed. Timothy B. Powell (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press), pp. 1-16, 1999
  • “Historical Multiculturalism: Cultural Complexity in the First Native American Novel,” Beyond the Binary: Reconstructing Cultural Identity in a Multicultural Context, ed. Timothy B. Powell (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press). pp. 185-204, 1999
  • "Toni Morrison: The Struggle to Depict the Black Figure on the White Page," Black American Literature Forum (now entitled African American Review), Volume 24, Number 4 (Winter, 1990): pp. 747-760. Reprinted in Toni Morrison: A Casebook of Criticism of Contexts and Texts, ed. David L. Middleton, (New York: Garland), pp. 45-61, 1997

Interviews

  • “Digitizing Some Native American Recordings while Keeping Others Sacred,” Newsworks, WHYY Philadelphia, interviewed by Peter Crimmins, Feb. 12, 2012,

Grants for Digital Projects

  • Project Director, “Endowing a Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at the American Philosophical Society, National Endowment for Humanities Challenge Grant, American Philosophical Society, 2015-2017 ($500,000) (CH-51222)
  • Co-Project Director, “Teaching Ojibwe Values through Stories and

Songs,” National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities Initiatives with Tribal Colleges and Universities,” Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, 2014-2015

  • Advisory Board, “Writing of Indigenous New England: Building

Partnerships for the Preservation of and Access to Regional Native American Literature,” Project Director: Siobhan Senier, NEH Perservation and Access Grant ($39K)

  • Advisory Board, “Penobscot (aaq) Dictonary Project,” National Science

Foundation Documenting Endangered Languages, Project Director: Pauleena MacDougall, University of Maine, Orono, , 2013-2016 ($339, 411)

  • Advisory Board, “Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition,” Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Project Director: Regna Darnell, Western Ontario University, 2013-2018 ($2.5 million)
  • Participant, “Writing of Indigenous New England,” NEH Foundation Grant, Office of Preservation and Access,” PI: Siobhan Senier, University of New Hampshire, 2014-2016
  • Participant, “Institute for High Performance Sound Technologies for Access and Scholarship (HiPSTAS), NEH Advanced Topics in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin, Project Director: Tanya Clement, 2013-2014 ($235K)
  • Advisory Board, “The Distributed Text: An Annotated Digital Edition of Franz Boas's Pioneering Ethnography,” NEH Digital Humanities grant, 2011-2013 ($50K)
  • Project Director, “Preserving and Revitalizing Endangered Native American Languages Held in the American Philosophical Society Library,”Mellon Foundation, American Philosophical Society, 2011-2014 ($500K),(# 11100703)
  • Project Director, Humanities Initiatives with Tribal Colleges, National

Endowment for the Humanities, Leech Lake Tribal College, 2011-2012 ($100K), (#AD-50031-11)

  • Project Director, "A Digital Archive for Recordings of Endangered Native American Languages," Mellon Foundation, American Philosophical Society, 2008- 2011, ($500K), (# 40700759)
  • Project Director, "Native American Images in Collections of the American Philosophical Society," Getty Foundation ($300K), American Philosophical Society, 2007-2010.
  • Project Director, National Endowment for the Humanities ($25K),Digital Humanities Start-Up grant, “Gibagadinamaagoom: An Ojibwe Digital Archive,” 2009-2010 [fiscal agent: Itasca Community College], (#HD-50776-09)
  • Project Director, National Endowment for the Humanities (#AD-50007-07, $100K), Humanities Initiative with Tribal Colleges, White Earth Tribal and Community College, 2006-2008
  • University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences Instructional Technology grant ($10K), Digital Partnerships with Indian Communities, 2009-2010,
  • Co-Project Director, “Civil Rights Digital Library,” Digital Library of Georgia, Institute of Museum and Library Services ($500), 2005 (moved to Penn shortly after DLG received grant)
  • Faculty Supervisor, “Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842,” Institute of Museum and Library Services ($500K), Digital Library of Georgia, University of Georgia, 1999-2000
  • Faculty Supervisor, “Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842,” Institute of Museum and Library Services follow up grant ($200K), Digital Library of Georgia, University of Georgia, 2000-2001

Digital Exhibits, Websites, and Archives

  • Curator, “Enliving Native American Photographs,” forthcoming on the American Philosophical Society website. [Exhibit will feature photographs taken by A. Irving Hallowell in the 1930s of a Medicine Man named Namiwaan (Fair Wind) with audio recordings of his grandson Mishoosh (Charlie George Owen) from the Maureen Matthews collection.
  • Director, “Cherokee Stickball,” curated by Marguerite Leone. [Exhibit will be featured at the Junsaluska Museum on the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians], forthcoming on Digital Partnerships with Indian Communities website]
  • Curator, “The American Philosophical Society through Indigenous Eyes,” American Philosophical Society website (2011)
  • Curator, “Native American Audio Collections,” American Philosophical Society website (2010)
  • Curator, “Gibagadinamaagoom: An Ojibwe Digital Archive” (2007-present)
  • Curator, “Digital Partnerships with Indian Communities” (2008)
  • Executive Producer, “Native American Images Project,” American Philosophical Society, curated by Jane Boyd (2009)
  • Curator, “Ask the Elders,” (2009), videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions
  • Curator, “The Treaty of 1855 and Creation of Ojibwe Reservations in Minnesota,” videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions, (2009)
  • Curator of digital exhibit, “Virtual Museum,” (2009), videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions
  • Curator of digital exhibit, “7 Directions,” (2009), videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions
  • Curator, “Apaakozigan (‘Indian Tobacco’)” (2009), videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions
  • Curator, “Anishinaabe Aniibiish (‘Swamp Tea’),”(2009) [videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions]
  • Curator, “Traditional and Modern Medicine,” (2009) [videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions]
  • Curator, “Ojibwemowin (‘Ojibwe Language’),” (2009) [videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions]
  • Curator, “A Drum Speaks,” (2005) [videography: David McDonald, DMcD Productions]
  • Co-Curator with Barbara McCaskill “The Multicultural Archive of Georgia,” (2000)

Reviews

  • “Inkpaduta by Paul N. Beck,” The Journal of American History, 2010, vol. 96, no. 4
  • “American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures by Joanna Brooks,” The Journal of American History 2004 91(3): 998-999
  • “Sentimental Confessions: Spiritual Narratives of Nineteenth-Century African American Women by Joycelyn Moody and Preacher Woman Sings the Blues: The Autobiography of Nineteenth-Century African American Evangelists by Richard J. Douglass-Chin,” American Literature, 2002, vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 645-647
  • “Multilingual America: Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and the Languages of American Literature by Werner Sollors,” American Literature, 2000, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 218-219

Invited Talks, Conference, and Colloquia Papers

  • Invited Talk, “Digital Humanities and Community Outreach,” Digital Humanities Forum, University of Pennsylvania, February 2015
  • Invited Talk, “What Digital Technology Means for Native American

Language Preservation and Cultural Revitalization,” American Philosophical Society Meetings, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 2014

  • Invited Talk, “Alternative Academic Careers,” Penn State University,

Sept. 2014

  • Conference paper, “Enhancing Collaborations between Tribes and

Archives,” Association of Tribal Archives, Museums, and Libraries, Palm Springs, CA, June 2014

  • Invited Talk, “Can Super Computers Detect When Spirits Speak

through Indigenous Wisdom Keepers?” High Performance Sound Technology for Access and Scholarship, NEH Institutes in Advanced Technologies in the Digital Humanities, University of Texas, Austin, May 2014

  • Conference paper, “The American Philosophical Society's Work with

3000 Hours of Digitized Native American Audio & Indigenous Communities,” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, University of Texas, Austin, May 2014

  • Invited Talk, “When Elders Speak, the Stories Come Alive: the Digital

Knowledge Sharing Initiative at the American Philosophical Society,” Presents of the Past conference at Texas A&M University, April 2014

  • Invited Talk, “Digital Humanities at the American Philosophical

Society,” #Alt-Ac: Fourth Annual CALS Spring Symposium, Penn State University, March 2014

  • Conference paper, “Protecting Cherokee Sacred Formula at the

American Philosophical Society,” American Anthropological Association conference, Chicago 2013

  • Invited Talk, “Big Data vs. Cultural Sensitivity: Digitizing

Native American Culture,” High Performance Sound Technology for Access and Scholarship, NEH Institutes in Advanced Technologies in the Digital Humanities, University of Texas, Austin, May 2013.

  • Invited Talk, “Mapping Traditional Indigenous Knowledge Systems

on to Content Management Systems,” Bard Graduate Center, October 2012.

  • Invited Talk, “Digital Knowledge Sharing: Collaborations between

American Indian Communities and the American Philosophical Society,” American Studies Colloquium, Princeton University, September 2012.

  • Invited Talk, “Protocols for Culturally Sensitive Native American

Materials Designed in Partnership with Indigenous Communities: A New Initiative at the American Philosophical Society,” University of Victoria, August 2012.

  • Invited talk, "Digital Technology and Native American Language

Preservation," American Philosophical Society, December 2011.

  • Invited talk, "Cherokee Sound Recordings in the American

Philosophical Society's Collections," Elder's Committee, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reservation, Cherokee North Carolina, October 2011.

  • Invited talk, “Revitalizing Thomas Jefferson’s Vision for Preserving

Native American Languages at the American Philosophical Society,” invited talk at the University of Virginia’s Scholars Lab, September 2011

  • “Digitally Recovering the Native American Oral Tradition, the Lost History of American Literature,” American Literature Association conference, May 2011
  • Roundtable participant, “Challenging Western Knowledge: Practical Implementation of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials,” Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, April 2011
  • “Undergraduate Participation in Creating a Digital Exhibit for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians,” invited talk at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, joint presentation with my student Frederica Valente, March 2011
  • Roundtable participant, “After the Return: Digital Repatriation and the Circulation of Indigenous Knowledge,” (AAA Executive Program Committee), American Anthropological Association, Nov. 2010
  • “Exploring the Possibility of a Digital Documentary Editing Project of the Franz Boas Papers at the American Philosophical Association,” “Franz Boas: Ethnographer, Theorist, Activist, Public Intellectual” conference, University of Western Ontario, December 2010
  • Invited talk, “The Lenape in Pennsylvania,” The Robinson House, Delaware, July 2010
  • Invited talk, “Negotiating the Cultural Turn in the Digital Humanities,” “Online Humanities Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come,” University of Virginia, March 2010
  • Invited talk, “Digital Ethnography,” Anthropology Department Lunch-in-Theory, Georgetown University, 2010
  • Invited talk, “Negotiating the Cultural Turn in the Digital Humanities,” Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, Georgetown University, 2010
  • Round table participant, “Links and Kinks in the Chain,” Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA
  • Invited talk, “Indigenous Knowledge and Archives,” “Recovering Voices” conference, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, November 2009
  • Invited talk, “Issues of Cultural Sensitivity in Building an Ojibwe Digital Archive,” American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, 2009
  • Invited talk, “Encoding Culture: Building a Digital Archive Based on the Seven Sacred Directions of Ojibwe Cosmology,” University of Virginia’s Scholars’ Lab, 2009
  • “Indigenous Origins of Digital Literacy: Building a Digital Archive in Partnership with Ojibwe Tribal Historians,” “Literacy in the Digital Age and Online Resources for Diverse Populations” conference, National Museum of the American Indian (invited but could not attend), 2009
  • Invited talk, “Imagining a Digital Future: Building Bridges between Ojibwe Reservations, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Penn Museum,” invited talk, Minnesota Historical Society, 2009
  • “An Indian Sacred Pipe Carrier Speaks: What Digital Scholarship Can Do that Paper-Based Scholarship Cannot,” Panel: American Studies at the Digital Crossroads, American Studies Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM. Proposal accepted, but unable to attend.
  • Invited talk, “The Sovereignty of Storytelling: Digitization, Ojibwe Culture and Traditional Codes of Conduct,” American Indian Policy Institute, Arizona State University, 2008.
  • Invited talk, “Words of ‘Supreme Magic Power’: Stories of Flying Africans from Slavery Times to Our Time,” “Atlantic World and African American Life and Culture in the Georgia Lowcountry: 18th to 20th Century,” Savannah, GA, 2008
  • Invited talk, “Enlivening Paper Documents: A Dialogue Between an Ojibwe Tribal Historian and the Treaty of 1855,” Minnesota Historical Society,” 2008
  • Invited talk, “The Sovereignty of Storytelling: Working to Provide Intellectual Property Rights for Ojibwe Storytellers,” Leech Lake (Ojibwe) reservation, 2007
  • Invited talk, "Digital Partnerships with Native American Communities: Encoding Traditional Knowledge in New Forms for the Future," Center for Native American Studies, Yale University, 2007
  • Invited talk, “A Drum Speaks: Translating Traditional Ojibwe Stories into Digital Form,” White Earth Tribal and Community College, Menomin, Minnesota, 2007
  • “Anthropology in the Digital Age: An Ojibwe Sacred Pipe Carrier Speaks in Digital Form,” Penn Museum’s Brown Bag Lunch series, 2007
  • Invited talk, “A Digital Partnership with Native American Communities,” Berkman Center for Internet and Technology, Harvard University, 2007
  • Invited talk, “Translating the Native American Oral Tradition into Digital Images: Working with Elders in Ojibwe Communities in Northern Minnesota,” Cultural Studies Colloquium at Harvard University, 2006
  • Invited talk, “Digitizing Cherokee Culture: Views from the Academy and from the Reservation University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, Philadelphia, 2005
  • “A Deeper America: Restoring the Native American Past to American Literary History,” American Studies Association, Hartford, CT, 2004
  • Invited talk, “Digitizing Cherokee Culture: An Overview of the Electronic Archives at the University of Georgia,” Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, Cherokee Museum, Qualla Reservation, NC, 2004
  • Invited talk, “Multicultural Georgia: Past, Present, and Future,” After

O’Connor symposium, University of Georgia, 2004