Staff

Prof. Bailey K. Young, Principal Investigator

Dr. Young co-founded the Walhain-St-Paul Project in 1998 in partnership with Dr. Raymond Brulet of Université Catholique de Louvain. Since then, he has guided dozens of students through their first forays into field archaeology and provided sustained mentoring to many well beyond their time on the project. Dr. Young has been researching, excavating, and teaching in the areas of medieval history and archaeology for more than forty years. His primary area of interest is Merovingian history and archaeology, particularly burial practices. He is currently Distinguished Professor of History at Eastern Illinois University. Dr. Young has been known to step into an area and immediately uncover a significant artifact, feature, or context change and also to peddle conspiracy theories about spiral stairs, spectral chapels, and secret societies at Chateau Walhain.  Contact: bkyoung@eiu.edu

Dana Best-Mizsak, Field Supervisor & Laboratory Director

Dana (seated above) started with WSP in 2001 as a student with a background in prehistoric and Canal-era archaeology in the Ohio region… But, she got bitten by the medieval bug (hey, T-shirt idea?) and has been with WSP ever since. While digging in the dirt is where it all started, Dana now spends most of her time in the lab instructing students on the fine arts of pot-washing and note-taking during the field school. She is also food procurer, driver, field trip planner, and generally practical person. Her specific area of interest is mid to late Medieval ceramics and the associated trade routes. Currently, she serves as the Electrical Administrator for Zenith Systems in Cleveland, OH, the Historian for the James A. Garfield Civil War Roundtable, and the co-chair of the Garfield Symposium, an academic conference now in its 7th year. Her medieval nickname is Dana of the Many Hats.

Annie Tock Morrisette, Field Supervisor and Assistant to the Director

Annie (standing above) first joined the WSP crew as a history grad student in 2005, but she was bitten by the archaeology bug (hey, this T-shirt idea is really gaining steam) and went on to earn a master’s degree in underwater archaeology from East Carolina University. Fearing she may be unemployable as a maritime archaeologist, she went back to school for a PhD in history. She’s currently wrapping up that degree at the University of Maine and wondering whether the archaeology idea may have been the better one after all. For the past two field seasons, Annie has reunited with the WSP crew to serve as research partner and field supervisor. In addition to Walhain, Annie has worked on maritime archaeology sites in Wisconsin and Hawaii, served as a contract archaeologist for NOAA on one of the final excavations of the USS Monitor turret, and done CRM work – mostly Phase I survey – in eastern Virginia. Her particular areas of interests are medieval landscapes and the transition from the idea of the commons to the concept of public space. Her medieval nickname is Annie of the Many Ideas.

Et al. – Stay tuned!