Megan Crutcher, Ph.D.
I'm a maritime historian and archaeologist writing and teaching about how African sailors shaped the history of the Atlantic World. I am the 2025-2027 Ann Plato Fellow in the Department of History at Trinity College-Hartford. I earned my Ph.D. in Anthropology (Nautical Archaeology Program) from Texas A&M University in 2025. I also hold an M.A. in Public History from Duquesne University and a B.A. in History from Grove City College.
With established expertise in West African maritime history and archaeology, I research, teach, and publish at the intersection of social history, maritime archaeology, and Africana studies. My interdisciplinary writing has appeared in the Journal of Social History, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Critical African Studies, the Journal of African History, Maritime Studies, and other outlets, and has won several research awards. My research interests, broadly, lie in historical archaeology, postmedieval archaeology, public history, maritime archaeology, and maritime history of the Atlantic and African coasts, especially Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Portugal. I also maintain professional interest and experience in conservation and collections care, museum studies, material culture studies, and heritage and memory.
In Liberia, I co-direct the Kru Coast Heritage Initiative, an archaeological and oral history project investigating materiality and constructions of Kru heritage, archaeology, and identity in Sinoe County, Liberia. My dissertation explored how Indigenous West African sailors like the Kru of Liberia resisted colonization and overlapping global processes of racialization and labor exploitation during the long eighteenth century. I have also collaborated with international teams from several countries to complete archaeological excavations, historical archival research, monitoring of archaeological sites, and curation/analysis of material culture across Europe, the Americas, and Africa. I am a PADI-certified Rescue Diver.
With established expertise in West African maritime history and archaeology, I research, teach, and publish at the intersection of social history, maritime archaeology, and Africana studies. My interdisciplinary writing has appeared in the Journal of Social History, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Critical African Studies, the Journal of African History, Maritime Studies, and other outlets, and has won several research awards. My research interests, broadly, lie in historical archaeology, postmedieval archaeology, public history, maritime archaeology, and maritime history of the Atlantic and African coasts, especially Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Portugal. I also maintain professional interest and experience in conservation and collections care, museum studies, material culture studies, and heritage and memory.
In Liberia, I co-direct the Kru Coast Heritage Initiative, an archaeological and oral history project investigating materiality and constructions of Kru heritage, archaeology, and identity in Sinoe County, Liberia. My dissertation explored how Indigenous West African sailors like the Kru of Liberia resisted colonization and overlapping global processes of racialization and labor exploitation during the long eighteenth century. I have also collaborated with international teams from several countries to complete archaeological excavations, historical archival research, monitoring of archaeological sites, and curation/analysis of material culture across Europe, the Americas, and Africa. I am a PADI-certified Rescue Diver.