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Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies

 Anisha Russo

Anisha Russo

Postgraduate Researcher
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies

I am a maritime archaeologist with a background in archaeology, anthropology, and ethnography. I completed a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology with an Integrated MSc in Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton in 2022. I have since worked at the Cambridge University Archaeological Unit as a Senior Field Archaeologist, excavating on commercial sites, such as Over (prehistoric), Cherry Hinton (Roman/Saxon) and Must Farm (Bronze Age). As a result, I have acquired an extensive amount of fieldwork experience in various contexts and gained core skills out on site and in the finds office.


My interests, however, predominately lie in the maritime field, specifically past and contemporary shipbuilding techniques and seafaring in the Indian Ocean. I am also a certified professional diver and have obtained my qualifications during my undergraduate study in Southampton.


The focal point of my PhD research is the traditional watercraft and shipbuilding technology of South India and to what extent they have been influenced by social and environmental factors. I hope to delineate the socio-economic and environmental changes affecting the diversity and use of traditional watercraft by conducting ethnographic fieldwork within fishing and seafaring communities in South India so as to contextualise traditional boatbuilding sequences associated with the Indian Ocean and how these have been influenced as a result of social impacts and environmental changes.

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