Brenda Farnell


Brenda Farnell is a British-American anthropologist and Professor of American Indian Studies and Anthropology at the University of Illinois. Her areas of focus include dance, movement, performance, language, and Labanotation. Her work is influenced by Sociocultural Theory, Visual Anthropology, Ethnopoetics, and Semiotic Anthropology. Farnell's use of Labanotation as a research tool has developed dance and performance notation in the field of Anthropology. She focuses on the North American Plains culture areas, including the Nakota, Crow, and Comanche nations. Her work includes extensive study of Plains Sign Language, storytelling practices, Indigenous epistemologies, expressive culture, and endangered language revitalization. She also examines American contemporary dance, choreography, and theatre. She has collaborated with individuals in her field such as Robert Wood, Tim Ingold, Charles R. Varela, Dixie Durr, and Drid Williams.

Early life and education

Born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, Farnell received her bachelor's degree in education from the University of Liverpool in 1969, where she majored in dance studies and physical education and minored in biology., In 1977 she received the Diploma in Dance from the Laban Dance Center, Goldsmiths College, London University. In 1984, she completed her Master of Arts degree in anthropology of human movement from New York University. She completed her Ph.D. in social, cultural, and linguistic anthropology in 1990, from Indiana University.

Career

Farnell is a professor in the Department of Anthropology and American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois. She is a coeditor for the Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement for the University of Illinois Press. She is on the Professional Advisory Board for the Dance Notation Bureau.
In 2011, Farnell became a member of the Indigenous Knowledge, Contemporary Performance research and creation project at the University of Guelph.
In 2008, Farnell was elected, for a three-year term, as a member of the Minority Issues in Anthropology Committee for the American Anthropological Association.
In 2002, she received a position as Research Associate as the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Centre for Advanced Study.

Awards and achievements

In 2009, Farnell won the University of Illinois Department of Anthropology Distinguished Service award. She received this award for second time in 2017.
In 2005, her work, Talking from the Body in Post-modern Dance, was awarded the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Research Board Award.
In 2000, she won the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Award as a Helen Corley Petit Scholar.
In 1997, her work was presented at the Native American Film Festival at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York city.
In 1996, Farnell won the Haozous Award in New Technologies at the Native Americas International Film Festival for her interactive, multimedia ethnography Wiyuta: Assiniboine Storytelling with Signs.

Publications

Books