Biography

I am a maritime historian and archaeologist who writes and teaches about how historical archaeology can connect to and improve peoples’ lived realities today. As a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at Texas A&M University, I study how how and why Atlantic activity in Liberia was intensified by European colonization and how Indigenous communities in southern Liberia, like the world-famous Kru (Krao), resisted the overlapping global processes of racialization and labor exploitation. My broad interests and expertise are in West African history, the Early Modern Atlantic, maritime and nautical archaeology, conservation, and public history. I approach my research with a pragmatic and critical theorist perspective that seeks to answer research questions with an eye to increased social justice in our world. I do this through interdisciplinary historical, archaeological, and anthropological lines of evidence using material culture, environmental data, ethnography, oral history, archival sources, and more. I hold an M.A. in Public History from Duquesne University (2020) and a B.A. in History. Learn more about my past, present, and future work at www.megancrutcher.com.