We are pleased to announce that Dr Crystal Safadi has been offered and accepted the new HFF supported position at the University of Southampton. Through this role, Dr Safadi will be undertaking research and teaching within the field of Maritime Archaeology, with a specific focus on the eastern Mediterranean. This position has been conceived, following the Foundation’s mission, with the aim of advancing and promoting international research and teaching activities in the field.

As the first grantee to have received one of our scholarships for a Masters and a PhD in Maritime Archaeology in 2013, she has now secured this new position, which testifies to the role the Foundation is playing in building expertise in eastern Mediterranean Maritime Archaeology.

Dr Safadi graduated from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, with BA in Archaeology in 2006. She then pursued her postgraduate studies at the University of Southampton, UK, first supported by the Saïd Foundation for a Masters in Archaeological Computing-Spatial Technologies, and then funded by the HFF for a Masters and a PhD in Maritime Archaeology. Her research thus far has been focussed on the eastern Mediterranean; she researched Bronze Age settlement patterns in the central Levant, investigated the maritime accessibility of ancient Levantine harbours, studied Levantine maritime engagements with the sea during the Early Bronze Age, and modelled prehistoric maritime mobility through time-space mapping for the eastern Mediterranean Basin.

In her more recent appointment and activities, she has been involved in the coordination and implementation of one of the largest and impactful maritime archaeological projects in the Middle East and North Africa, the Maritime Endangered Archaeology project based at the universities of Southampton and Ulster. Through this, her work has focused on maritime heritage data repositories, managing geospatial and heritage data, and undertaking remote sensing and field-based research. Dr Safadi recently completed a project investigating Neolithic maritime landscapes and activities in the Levant and Cyprus, a research theme she is keen to expand on in the future. Additionally, she has a led and participated in underwater fieldwork, provided geospatial data management expertise to projects, and undertook diving and marine geophysical surveying at several maritime archaeological sites.

This new role begins in January 2023. We will aim to provide yearly updates on research and fieldwork activities it will comprise.