Dr Katherine Fennelly

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Lecturer in Cultural Heritage

Katherine Fennelly 2026 Staff Photo
Profile picture of Katherine Fennelly 2026 Staff Photo
k.fennelly@sheffield.ac.uk
0114 222 2904
511, 9 Mappin Street

Full contact details

Dr Katherine Fennelly
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
511
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
Profile

I am a historical archaeologist and Lecturer in Cultural Heritage. My teaching and research focus on the historic built environment and landscapes, examining how physical spaces shape human experience, expressions of institutional power, and performance of social and cultural identity. I am also interested in how archaeologists and heritage practitioners communicate our work, how we are represented in popular media, and how we tell stories about the past.

Across my career, my research has focused on the built heritage and landscapes of welfare and confinement across the UK and Ireland. I have explored poverty, migration, and urban improvement, and have directed archaeology projects, including excavations of Edwardian urban bandstands in Sheffield. My current research explores the architectural legacy and material expressions of British soft power in Seoul (c.1880–1919).

At Sheffield, I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in history and cultural heritage, focusing on the historic environment, public history, and heritage practice.

I earned my BA (Hons) and MA from University College Dublin before completing my PhD at the University of Manchester in 2013.

Qualifications

PhD, University of Manchester (2013)
MA Archaeology, University College Dublin (2008)
BA (Hons) Arts, University College Dublin (2007)

Research interests

My research focuses on historical archaeology and the historic built environment, exploring how physical spaces shape human experience, reflect institutional control, and reflect cultural identity. Methodologically, I integrate archaeological fieldwork with historical research, spatial analysis, and digital mapping to examine how spaces were designed, inhabited, and interpreted over time.

My earlier work examined the built heritage, landscapes, and legacies of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century institutions for welfare and confinement across the UK and Ireland. This research explored how institutional spaces like asylums, workhouses, and almshouses influenced the daily lives of residents, workers, and surrounding communities. I have led excavations on Edwardian bandstand sites in Sheffield, working alongside students and community volunteers. I am also interested in heritage work and the language of the field, and how archaeologists and heritage practitioners tell stories about the past.

My current project, "Complex Relations", expands my spatial research into an international context. The project, supported by the Leverhulme Trust, investigates the architectural history and built heritage of British soft power and informal empire in Seoul at the start of the twentieth century. The project examines how architecture serves as a material expression of diplomatic relations.

Current and recent PhD projects I have supervised include research into memory and power, institutional and municipal built heritage, place-making, and the contemporary urban environment.

Publications

Books

  • Newman C & Fennelly K (2023) . Berghahn Books.
  • Fennelly K (2019) An archaeology of lunacy Managing madness in early nineteenth-century asylums Introduction.

Journal articles

  • Fennelly K (2024) . Post-Medieval Archaeology, 58(2-3), 122-135.
  • Fennelly K (2023) . European Journal of Archaeology, 26(2), 265-268.
  • Fennelly K (2023) . International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 27(3), 671-687.
  • Fennelly K (2022) . Public Archaeology, 21(1-4), 108-122.
  • Fennelly K (2020) . Urban History, 47(4), 671-688.
  • Fennelly K (2019) . Post-Medieval Archaeology, 53(3), 438-440.
  • Fennelly K (2017) . Post-Medieval Archaeology, 51(3), 525-526.
  • FENNELLY K (2017) . Urban History, 44(3), 564-573.
  • Fennelly K (2017) The Plurality of Power: an Archaeology of Industrial Capitalism. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 51(3), 525-526.
  • Fennelly KL & Newman C (2017) . International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 21(1), 178-197.
  • Casella E & Fennelly KL (2016) . International Journal of Historical Archaeology.
  • Fennelly K (2015) . Post-Medieval Archaeology, 49(3), 426-427.
  • Fennelly K (2015) Archaeology and State Theory: Subjects and Objects of Power. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 49(3), 426-427.
  • Fennelly K (2014) Prisoners of War: Archaeology, Memory and Heritage of 19th-and 20th-Century Mass Internment. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 48(3), 527-528.
  • Fennelly K (2014) Exhuming Loss: Memory, Materiality and Mass Graves of the Spanish Civil War. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 48(3), 527-528.
  • Fennelly KL (2014) . World Archaeology, 46(3), 416-430.
  • Fennelly K (2013) The Archaeology of Capitalism in Colonial Contexts: Postcolonial Historical Archaeologies. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 47(2), 467-469.
  • Fennelly K (2013) Across the North Sea: Later Historical Archaeology in Britain and Denmark, c. 1500-2000 AD. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 47(2), 467-469.
  • Fennelly K (2012) Interpreting the Early Modern World: Transatlantic Perspectives. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 46(2), 452-453.
  • Fennelly K (2012) Ireland and Britain in the Atlantic World. POST-MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 46(2), 452-453.

Book chapters

  • Fennelly K (2024) , Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology (pp. 65-82). Springer International Publishing
  • Fennelly K (2018) , Nineteenth Century Childhoods in Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives (pp. 153-165). Oxbow Books
  • Fennellya K (2018) , Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation (pp. 192-211). Berghahn Books
  • Fennelly K (2018) Religion in the asylum: Lunatic asylum chapels and religious provision in nineteenth-century Ireland, Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation Between Text and Practice (pp. 192-211).
  • Casella EC & Fennelly K () , The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Archaeology (pp. 619-633). Oxford University Press

Theses

  • Fennelly KL (2013) “The Palace of a Prince”: the Archaeology of Lunatic Asylum Architecture, Reform and Management in England and Ireland, c.1815-c.1855.. University of Manchester.
  • Fennelly KL (2008) Religion and the Institution: the archaeology of pastoral care in pauper District Lunatic Asylums in ireland. University College Dublin.

Dictionary or encyclopaedia entries

  • Fennelly K (2014) . In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology Springer New York.
Research group

I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate researchers interested in historical archaeology, the built environment, and heritage practice. I am particularly keen to work with students exploring sustainable development, adaptive reuse of built heritage, and colonial legacies in built environments, as well as heritage interpretation and storytelling.

Current PhD students:

Dora Knowles
Dingli Sun
Claire Moore
Robert Cotterell

Completed PhD students:

Katherine Faulkes - Forging a Life: How can the Sheffield Commissioner Churches inform our understanding of social, economic and political life in Sheffield, 1825-1856? 

Teaching activities

Cultural Heritage MA

Postgraduate taught
  • September 2026 start
  • 1 year 2 years Full-time Part-time

Learn about cultural heritage and develop skills to address the challenges facing the historic environment in a dynamic global context.

  • Funding available
Professional activities and memberships
  • Fellow, Higher Education Academy (2019–present)
  • Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of London (2017–present)
  • Journal Editor, Post-Medieval Archaeology (2018-2022)