Dr. T. Kurt Knoerl

Assistant Professor of History (2017).                                                 
B.A. State University of New York at Buffalo (1987),
M.A., East Carolina University (1994);
Ph.D., George Mason University of (2012).

Teaching and Research Interests:

Digital History, Public History, Maritime History, Maritime Archaeology, Material Culture, Native American History, and Environmental History.

Upper Division Courses:

• HIST 3700 American Material Culture
• HIST 5260 History in the Digital Age
• HIST 3350 Maritime History
• HIST 3354 Maritime Archaeology
• HIST 5234 Piracy in Americas, 1500 – 1750

Digital Projects  

The Museum of Underwater Archaeology

The Digital Canoe Collection

W. W. Law African American Heritage Trail

Contact Information:
Department of History
Georgia Southern University—Armstrong Campus
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, GA 31419-1997

Office: 109B Hawes Building
Tel.: 912-344-2789
Email: kknoerl@georgiasouthern.edu
Fax:

Selected Publications:

• “‘A Ticklish Craft’: Viewing Britain’s Empire from Inside a Birch-bark Canoe in the Eighteenth Century.” The Mariner’s Mirror 108, no. 3 (August 2022): 286–305
• “Canoes in Context: An Ojibwa Maritime Cultural Landscape.” International Journal of Maritime History 32, no. 2 (May 2020): 269–87.
• A Maritime Career Spent Out in the Open: It’s All Bill Still’s Fault, Paper presented at the 35^th Anniversary Alumni Conference, East Carolina University, October 2017
• Strike While the Iron is Hot, Perspectives on History, American Historical Association, (https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/march-2015/strike-while-the-iron-is-hot), March 2015.
• A Global Shipwreck: Using the Internet for Research, Public Outreach, and Catching up with the Past, in Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage Proceedings, Edited by Mark Staniforth et al. Asian Academy for Heritage Management. (http://www.themua.org/collections/items/show/1189), 2011.

Media Coverage

• Eagle Nations Saves Submerged History – Eagle Eye View Podcast Episode 3.
• Georgia Southern Graduate Student Uses Oysters to Dig for Lowcountry History – All On Georgia, July 11, 2022
• Documenting Savannah’s African American maritime history – Here and Now, June 22, 2022
• Georgia Southern research project seeks to fill in the gaps of African American maritime history – GPB News, May 18, 2022
• Georgia Southern students research maritime sites – WTOC, February 28, 2022
• Researchers use drone to search for sunken ships off Wormsloe – WTOC, May 26, 2021
• Dredging up the past: A closer look at artifacts found in Savannah River – WTOC, March 26, 2021

Professional Activities, Awards, and Honors:

• 2022 Recipient of Americana Corner Grant for research on African American maritime field research.
• 2021 Co-recipient of Georgia Sea Grant’s Artists, Writers, and Scholars Grant for research on African American / Gullah Geechee maritime research.
• The 2019 Kristina Brockmeier Faculty Award for outstanding teaching and significant contributions through service to the university and its students
• 2018 Grant reviewer for the NOAA Exploration and Research Grants
• 2017 R. Frank Saunders, Jr. Fall History Lecturer
• Past institutional board member for the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology
• Founder and Director of the Museum of Underwater Archaeology

Current Research:

• African American and Gullah Geechee maritime history in coastal Georgia.
• Native American and British Colonial maritime cultural landscapes in the eighteenth century.

Last updated: 2/27/2023