PUTTING HISTORY & ARCHAEOLOGY TO WORK
Historian. Archaeologist. Scholar-Educator.
Hey! I'm Megan.
As a historian, archaeologist, and PhD candidate in Anthropology at Texas A&M University, I write and teach about how maritime and historical archaeology can connect to and improve peoples' lived realities today. I hold an M.A. in Public History from Duquesne University and a B.A. in History. I'm also a PADI-certified rescue diver.
Based at Texas A&M University, my research investigates how African sailors shaped the history of the Atlantic World. My dissertation explores how Indigenous West African sailors like the Kru of Liberia resisted colonization and overlapping global processes of racialization and labor exploitation. I am the co-director of the Kru Coast Heritage Initiative, an archaeological and oral history project investigating Kru origins, migration, and identity in Sinoe County, Liberia.
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. The modern world was shaped by interconnection, global trade, and increased anthropogenic impact on the environment, but also by racism, colonization, and exploitation of labor--all factors which have distinctly maritime dimensions. These problems continue to shape the lives of many individuals and communities around our world today. My projects employ interdisciplinary historical, archaeological, and anthropological lines of evidence using material culture, environmental data, ethnography, oral history, archival sources, and more to confront these issues of the past that continue to shape our present and future.
My broad interests and expertise are in West African history, climate change, the Early Modern Atlantic, maritime and historical archaeology methods, conservation, and public history.
Based at Texas A&M University, my research investigates how African sailors shaped the history of the Atlantic World. My dissertation explores how Indigenous West African sailors like the Kru of Liberia resisted colonization and overlapping global processes of racialization and labor exploitation. I am the co-director of the Kru Coast Heritage Initiative, an archaeological and oral history project investigating Kru origins, migration, and identity in Sinoe County, Liberia.
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. The modern world was shaped by interconnection, global trade, and increased anthropogenic impact on the environment, but also by racism, colonization, and exploitation of labor--all factors which have distinctly maritime dimensions. These problems continue to shape the lives of many individuals and communities around our world today. My projects employ interdisciplinary historical, archaeological, and anthropological lines of evidence using material culture, environmental data, ethnography, oral history, archival sources, and more to confront these issues of the past that continue to shape our present and future.
My broad interests and expertise are in West African history, climate change, the Early Modern Atlantic, maritime and historical archaeology methods, conservation, and public history.