05/20/2026
We are excited to announce that Dr. Allyson Ropp has joined our team in a new position, as the Research Fellow!
Since graduating from our program in 2016, Allyson has worked as an underwater archaeologist in the non-profit, state, and academic sectors. She recently completed her doctorate in Integrated Coastal Sciences at ECU. Her research explored the stability of a wooden shipwreck by integrating identifiable site-formation processes, including microbial habitation, local water conditions, and use and salvage-related behavioral decisions. By using novel methods and integrating known, quantifiable processes, she showed that the wood of a shipwreck is continually degrading and influenced by these processes at different rates.
She has conducted maritime historical, underwater archaeological, and interdisciplinary research on sites and landscapes across the East Coast, from Vermont to Florida, in the Great Lakes, and internationally in the Marshall Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. In addition to quantifying interrelated site formation processes, her research specialties include climate change impacts on coastal and submerged cultural resources, maritime cultural landscapes, and public archaeology.
Welcome aboard, Dr. Ropp! 🏴☠️
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