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Megan Crutcher

Biography

Dr. Megan Crutcher is a public historian and maritime archaeologist writing and teaching about how African sailors shaped the history of the Atlantic World. In Liberia, Crutcher is co-director with Prince D. Kondeh of the Kru Coast Heritage Initiative (KCHI), a public history project working with communities to investigate, document, and preserve Indigenous heritage in Liberia.

The KCHI team has conducted oral history, material culture studies, and archaeological excavation at the surfport town of Settra Kru in southeastern Liberia's Sinoe County. Crutcher's current project, "Where Trees Meet the Tide," traces the social networks and material processes of canoe construction in southeastern Liberia from the forest to the ocean. Their work has been funded by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Society for Postmedieval Archaeology, Texas A&M University, and Trinity College.

Dr. Crutcher is accepting inquiries from undergraduate and graduate students interested in researching topics related to the Atlantic World, West Africa, and maritime and public history. As a practicing public historian, Crutcher is also interested in projects that reimagine public history methods, work closely with communities, and provide transformative solutions to contemporary problems.

Degrees & Institutions

Crutcher received a Ph.D. in Anthropology (Nautical Archaeology Program) from Texas A&M University and holds an M.A. in Public History from Duquesne University and a B.A. in History from Grove City College.

Research

Crutcher's research interests, broadly, lie in public history, contemporary history, historical or postmedieval archaeology, maritime archaeology, and maritime history of the Atlantic and African coasts, with a long-term research focus on Liberia. 

Current Courses

AFH4503/5990: Africans in the Atlantic World

AMH4111: Colonial America

Classes Taught

AFH4503: Africans in the Atlantic World

AMH4111: Colonial America

Publications

  • Kennedy, Carolyn, and Megan Crutcher. “Challenging Exoticization: Maritime Archaeology Logistics in West Africa and East Canada.” Mainsheet 3 (December 2025). https://doi.org/10.61355/001c.147546.
  • Crutcher, Megan, and Prince D. S. Kondeh. “‘Mississippi Street Was Eaten by the Sea’: Climate Justice and Coastal Heritage in Liberia.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 29, no. 4 (2025): 928–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-024-00773-3.
  • Crutcher, Megan, Madicke Gueye, and Akshay Sarathi. “Developing a New Theoretical Model for West African Maritime Archaeology.” Critical African Studies 17, no. 3 (2025): 315–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2025.2470638.
  • Crutcher, Megan, and Lloyd Belton. “‘They Do Not Have Physiognomies of Their Own’: Tracking Racialization of Maritime Professions in the Eighteenth-Century Portuguese Empire.” Journal of Social History 59, no. 2 (2025): 215–37. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shaf001.
  • Crutcher, Megan. “‘For King and Empire’: The Changing Political, Economic, and Cultural Identities of Kru Mariners in Atlantic Africa, 1460–1945.” The Journal of African History 64, no. 3 (2023): 437–48. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853723000567.
  • Crutcher, Megan. “Jack Tar’s Ink: A Comparative Analysis of Euro-American and West African Sailors’ Tattoos during the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries.” Maritime Studies 22, no. 1 (2022): 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-022-00291-0.

Keywords: Liberia, West Africa, Maritime Archaeology, Public History, Atlantic World, Africana Studies