Susan Langley

Biography

Susan Langley is the Maryland State Underwater Archaeologist, a post she has held for more than 24 years. She has taught in Canada at the University of Calgary, Mount Royal College, and Olds College, as well as in Thailand for several years for the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO); part of UNESCO.  In Maryland she has taught at Salisbury University, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Washington College, but also at Johns Hopkins University in the Master of Liberal Arts Program and chiefly at St. Mary's College of Maryland. In addition to maritime archaeology and the history and anthropology of piracy, she is a recognized authority on textiles, and beekeeping past and present; she lectures internationally on all of these subjects.  Langley served on the Advisory Council for Underwater Archaeology from 2009-2012 and was re-elected to serve 2016-2020.  She has edited and published in numerous volumes and journals.  For serving 10 years on the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary’s Sanctuary Advisory Council holding the Archaeological Research Chair and also the Vice-chair and Chair positions for the Council as a whole, Langley was nationally recognized as one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) volunteers of the year in 2015. She is a PADI SCUBA Instructor at the Master Diver Trainer level and assists with the SCUBA classes in the St Mary’s Physical Education Program. At present she is working with NOAA, Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources and Charles County to have the nearly 100 WWI-era vessels and related structures in Mallows Bay designated the first new National Marine Sanctuary in more than 20 years. She has been working with the U.S. Coast Guard since 1999 on emergency planning and response for heritage resources threatened by oil and hazmat spills. Contact Susan at the Maryland Historical Trust: (410) 697-9564