Timothy Burgess (Tim) Powell, senior lecturer in the department of religious studies in the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn, died November 1 at his home in Philadelphia. He was 58.

Dr. Powell was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Cheshire, Connecticut. He graduated from Cheshire High School in 1978 and then earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and political science from Bucknell University in 1982. After graduating, he traveled to Egypt, where he taught English and met his wife, Eve Troutt.

Dr. Powell graduated with his master’s degree in English in 1987 from Trinity College and then earned his doctoral degree in American literature and history in 1995 from Brandeis University. He taught at Kenyon College before joining the faculty at the University of Georgia in Athens. In 2006, both he and his wife joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.

At Penn, Dr. Powell was a senior lecturer in religious studies and a consulting scholar at the Penn Museum. He taught courses in literature, cultural anthropology and religious studies, all of which encompassed Native American and Indigenous Studies, which became the legacy of his scholarly work. He founded the Educational Partnerships with Indigenous Communities (EPIC) at the Penn Language Center, which continued the work of digitizing archives in indigenous languages and returning these texts to their cultural homes and served as EPIC’s director until his death. Additionally, he was a member of the Governing Board of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities, the Faculty Advisory Group of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program, and the Faculty Working Group of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities.

Dr. Powell devoted his career to the preservation and revitalization of Native American and Indigenous language and culture. The author of several scholarly texts, numerous articles and the recipient of 18 federal and philanthropic grants, he traveled throughout the US and Canada, visiting with indigenous communities to encourage the digital repatriation of native artifacts.

Outside of Penn, Dr. Powell was a consulting scholar at the American Philosophical Society, where he established the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research and served as its director from 2008 to 2016. Dr. Powell, who was the great-great grandson of the Christian preacher Dwight L. Moody, assisted his father David Powell, in establishing The Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts in 2018.

Dr. Powell is survived by his wife, Eve Troutt Powell, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History and Africana Studies at Penn; sons Jibreel (Gabe) (C’16) and Gideon; parents David and Lucia; brother, John (Heather) and their children Ian, Mackenzie and Henry; his aunt Gloria; sister-in-law Margot Keys (William) and their daughter Lena; brother-in-law David Troutt (Shawn) and their children Naima and Jasmine.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 16 at West Laurel Hill Cemetery Chapel, 225 Belmont Ave., Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004.