Will Nassif
Will Nassif was born in Durham, NC, but spent most of his childhood in Cary, NC. After high school, he attended Appalachian State University in 2012 and graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in History and a minor in Accounting. During college, he completed an internship with the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC under the direction of Collections Manager Lynn Anderson, where he developed his interest in maritime culture and history. He returned to the Triangle after graduation and taught Accounting, Law, and Finance classes at Athens Drive High School in Wake County. After two years of teaching and coaching, he enrolled in the Maritime Studies Program at East Carolina University. His thesis is concerning the technological development of Washington, North Carolina’s waterfront and its rise and fall as a port city during the nineteenth century.
Jacquelyn Hewett
Jacquelyn Hewett is a first year graduate student in the Maritime Studies program. She grew up in Michigan and earned a BA in Anthropology and Art History from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Focusing initially on terrestrial archaeology, she worked on a variety of sites including a Pleistocene in Laetoli, Middle Woodland in Illinois, and Colonial American in Williamsburg, Virginia. Jacquelyn reconnected with her love of the water during her time in service in the U.S. Navy, and decided to pursue it further at ECU. In her spare time, she loves reading, knitting, watching movies, and spending time with her husband and daughters.
Mackenzie Mirre
Mackenzie Mirre is a first-year student in the maritime studies program. She received her BA in Anthropology with minors in history and religion from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. During undergraduate, Mackenzie volunteered at a Camp Nelson, a Civil War Heritage park, as a terrestrial archaeologist. In addition, she contributed to two university-funded maritime archaeology projects in El Salvador and the Florida Keys, testing both sonar capabilities and under-water imaging. Mackenzie’s research interests include the colonial Americas and the Caribbean with a focus in Public Archaeology.
Tyler McLellan
Tyler McLellan dwells in the depths of Maritime Studies. Originally from Ohio, he graduated from Youngstown State University with a degree in history and a double minor in archaeology and cultural anthropology. He has experiences in Terrestrial archaeology and history in the United States and overseas. His interests range from battleships of the Second World War, vessels of the Great Lakes and High North, and ocean liners of White Star and Cunard Lines. Holding a mixed bag of hobbies and interests and being a true outdoorsman, he can often be found reading by the river or under the shade of a tree.
Maggie Richardson
Maggie Richardson is a rising-senior, undergraduate student at East Carolina University studying Geographic Information Science (GIS) and Photography. As a child, she idealized underwater research topics like shipwrecks, bathymetric mapping, and marine biology. Since her freshman year of college, she has been a certified SCUBA diver, followed her love of maritime culture. Most of Maggie’s interests are driven by an insatiable curiosity to see new things and are followed by a passion for documenting them. To her, the world is vast and beautiful, worth learning about, and worth sharing with people in equally beautiful ways. This is where photography and mapping intersect disciplines like maritime archaeology. Becoming more adept at GIS and skilled as a photographer, she finds herself wanting more and more to work with researchers, helping document their findings, organize their data, and communicate their work to audiences who need or want to see it. All of those interests truly go back to her first loves in life – her family. The information means very little to her without people of significance to share it with. Maggie loves teaching her younger, homeschooled siblings about the world, and someday hopes to teach her own children in the same way.
Crew Chiefs
Aleck Tan
Aleck Tan is a graduate student in the Maritime Studies program. Originally from the Philippines, she has moved around the US since she was young, but feels at home anytime she is in the water. Aleck received her B.A. in Anthropology from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, where she gained experience in archaeology, mapping, and SCUBA diving. Her background includes conducting GIS research projects, conducting fieldwork in Belize, and working in cultural resource management in northern California. Aleck is interested in mapping techniques and the management of underwater cultural heritage in Southeast Asia.
Ryan Miranda
Ryan Miranda is a graduate student in the Maritime Studies program. He is originally from Farmington, Connecticut. Ryan received his B.A. in Anthropology from Washington College in Chestertown, MD. Ryan’s interests include Naval weaponry and maritime histories of the ancient world, Vikings and the US and Royal navy. His thesis will examine American naval officer swords from the Revolutionary war to the Civil war and how the symbolism of the sword was affected. Outside of archaeology, Ryan enjoys reading, music, playing sports, and being on the water as a rower and under the water as a diver. Ryan is certified as an AAUS Scientific Diver.
Tara van Niekerk
Tara is a second year Ph.D. student in the Coastal Resources Management at East Carolina University. She is from South Africa and has a background in terrestrial and maritime archaeology, and cultural resource management. She has worked on projects in South Africa, sub-Antarctic Marion Island, Mozambique, Senegal, and the United States. Her research interests include site formation processes (cultural and environmental) on underwater cultural resources, maritime and underwater cultural resource management, and public outreach.
Faculty and Staff
Jeremy Borrelli
Jeremy Borrelli is the Assistant Staff Maritime Archaeologist for the Program in Maritime Studies. He has experience in terrestrial and maritime archaeology, maritime history and artifact conservation. Over the past eight years Jeremy has been involved with archaeological projects in North Carolina, New York’s Hudson Valley, the Great Lakes, Africa and the Caribbean. Before joining ECU, he worked as a maritime archaeologist for the Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck Project with the State of NC. His research interests include 18th and 19th century maritime history, the archaeology of landing sites and harbor infrastructure, digital and 3D documentation methods, public archaeology and material culture analysis.
Dr. Lynn Harris
Dr. Lynn Harris has a background in nautical archaeology, terrestrial archaeology, submerged cultural resource management and maritime history. She teaches courses in underwater archaeology methods, maritime material culture, watercraft recording, and European maritime history with an inter-disciplinary Atlantic World perspective. Teaching assignments have included offering summer abroad study programs in Africa. Harris has also directed and co-directed underwater archaeology field schools for graduate students in a variety of locations. She has published on vernacular watercraft, colonial period shipwrecks, public outreach, maritime heritage tourism, and international collaboration in underwater archaeology initiatives.
Dr. Jennifer McKinnon
Jennifer McKinnon has a background in historical and maritime archaeology and cultural heritage management. She has worked in the US, Australia, the Pacific, and Europe on sites ranging from the colonial period to WWII. Her research areas include Spanish colonial archaeology, archaeology and history of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, conflict archaeology of WWII in the Pacific; landscape and seascape archaeology; in situ conservation and preservation, and Community Archaeology. Jennifer has published a number of book chapters and journal articles and co-edited (with Dr. Toni L. Carrell) a book with Springer Press entitled, Underwater Archaeology of a Pacific Battlefield: The WWII Battle of Saipan. McKinnon is a Research Associate of Ships of Exploration and Discovery Research, Inc., a non-profit organization with which she has partnered to conduct WWII-related research in the Pacific.
Prior to teaching at ECU, she was a Senior Lecturer in Flinders University’s Program in Maritime Archaeology in South Australia and a Senior Underwater Archaeologist with Florida’s Bureau of Archaeological Research, Department of State.
Team Pictures