Draft:Severin Fowles

{{Short description|Biography of Severin Morris Fowles, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, Barnard College}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Severin Morris Fowles

| education = PhD in Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan (1995-2004)

| occupation = Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, Chair of Anthropology, Director of the Archaeology Track

| website = https://barnard.edu/profiles/severin-fowles

}}

Severin Morris Fowles is an American archaeologist and anthropologist specializing in the indigenous cultures and colonial histories of the American Southwest.{{Cite web |title=faculty |url=https://www.columbia.edu/cu/anthropology/fac-bios/fowles/faculty.html |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=www.columbia.edu}}. He is a Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, where he also serves as Chair of the Anthropology Department and Director of the Archaeology Track{{Cite web |title=Severin Fowles {{!}} Barnard College |url=https://barnard.edu/profiles/severin-fowles |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=barnard.edu}}

Early life and education

Fowles earned his Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Dartmouth College in 1993. He later pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan, obtaining his Ph.D. in Anthropological Archaeology in 2004.{{Cite web |title=Severin Fowles {{!}} Department of Anthropology |url=https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/severin-fowles |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=anthropology.columbia.edu}}

Academic career

Since joining Barnard College in 2006, Fowles has combined archaeological methods with perspectives from Critical Indigenous Studies, Art History, Religious Studies, and New Materialist Philosophy to reimagine the history of the American West{{Cite web |title=Q&A: UA Anthropologist Featured in New 'Native America' Series {{!}} University of Arizona News |url=https://news.arizona.edu/news/qa-ua-anthropologist-featured-new-native-america-series |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=news.arizona.edu}}. He has directed excavations at archaeological sites spanning ten thousand years—from early forager camps to Ancestral Pueblo villages, Spanish colonial communities, and 1960s hippie communes. His work also includes landscape surveys, such as a decade-long rock art survey of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and a study of late pre-colonial and early colonial agricultural systems conducted on behalf of Picuris Pueblo{{Cite web |title=Features - Searching for the Comanche Empire - Archaeology Magazine - May/June 2014 |url=https://archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2014/features/searching-for-the-comanche-empire/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Archaeology Magazine |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2023-11-14 |title=Severin Fowles - Crow Canyon Archaeological Center |url=https://crowcanyon.org/people/fowles-severin/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |language=en-US}}. Fowles maintains collaborations with descendant communities, including Picuris Pueblo, the Comanche Nation, and the Indo-Hispano community at San Antonio del Embudo, New Mexico{{Cite web |last=Weideman |first=Paul |date=2014-05-23 |title=Grand unified theory: Severin Fowles on Catholic and Pueblo beliefs |url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/books/readings_signings/grand-unified-theory-severin-fowles-on-catholic-and-pueblo-beliefs/article_4f563a43-b698-5b06-9719-38bb3b26ed39.html |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Santa Fe New Mexican |language=en}}

Academic focus

Fowles's main academic focus is on:

Critical Indigenous studies
Collaborative archaeology
Settler colonialism
Cultural landscapes
Visual culture
Counterculture
American Southwest

At Barnard College, he teaches several courses including: Indigenous Place-Thought, American Material Culture, and Field Methods in Landscape Archaeology. He also directs Barnard's field program in New Mexico, providing students with hands-on experience in archaeological survey, excavation, and oral history in collaboration with descendant communities.

Publications

Fowles is the author of An Archaeology of Doings: Secularism and the Study of Pueblo Religion. School for Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe (2013). He co-edited with Barbara Mills The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology. Oxford University Press (2017).

His current writing projects include Comanche Afterimages: Visual Culture and History in Northern New Mexico and Figured Ground: A Deep History of the Image along the Rio Grande, co-authored with Darryl Wilkinson, Lindsay Montgomery, and Benjamin Alberti.

Professional affiliations

Fowles is affiliated with several professional organizations and associations:

External Links

[https://barnard.edu/profiles/severin-fowles Barnard College Profile]
[https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/severin-fowles Columbia University Anthropology Department Profile]
[https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/severin-fowles ResearchGate Profile]
[https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=1hCzlZkAAAAJ Google Scholar Citations]