Ph.D. Miami University, Rhetoric and Composition, 2019 M.A. Miami University, Rhetoric and Composition, 2015 Certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Miami University, 2015 Dual B.A. Northern Kentucky University, English Literature; Philosophy, 2012 Perpetually curious of language, the material world, queerness, and place, Dr. Caleb Pendygraft is a Kentucky Appalachian who received his PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His book, Reading, Writing, and Queer Survival: Affects, Matterings, and Literacies Across Appalachia (UPKY, 2025), has been praised as a “trailblazing book” that “will undoubtedly have a lasting influence in how we think about literacy, queerness, and Appalachia,” and as an “unequivocally a groundbreaking and necessary book for our time.” His other work has appeared in Appalachian Journal, The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric, Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice, Journal of Appalachian Studies, and Storytelling in Queer Appalachia: Imagining and Writing the Unspeakable Other. Currently he is nearing the close of his memoir, titled Callin' Down the Spirit (forthcoming 2026), while starting another adventure co-editing a queer eco-spiritual collection of Appalachian voices. When he isn't teaching or writing, you can usually find him either barefooted, digging through his brambled garden, tending to the PendyCats, or visiting Atlantic sands thinking about the hills.
Greg Perry came to Buzzards Bay as the head men's soccer coach in 1993 and has been a fixture on the sidelines ever since, as he has shattered the school record for career wins along the way. Perry led Massachusetts Maritime to a 4-2-1 league slate in 2014 before falling to eventual conference tournament champion Fitchburg State in the semifinals, as the Buccaneers followed up another highly successful 2013 campaign that saw the program earn its first post-season victory with a MASCAC quarterfinal round triumph over Salem State.
Perry has garnered MASCAC Coach of the Year honors on three occasions, the last coming in 2013 when the Buccaneers recorded eight overall wins and knocked off rivals Bridgewater State and Coast Guard along the way.
A 1989 graduate of Westfield State, Perry was a four-year letterwinner for the Owls after a stellar high school career at Bridgewater-Raynham Regional. He has coached numerous all-conference and all-New England players over the past two-plus decades as well as NSCAA All-America and Buccaneer Hall of Famer Brendan Duggan ’06.
Perry, who resides in Marshfield, Mass., also serves as Massachusetts Maritime’s Assistant Baseball Coach and directs all athletics facilities operations for the Camps & Conferences Department.
Christian Petterson brings nearly two decades of maritime, commercial, financial, and operational leadership experience to Massachusetts Maritime Academy. A graduate of the Academy’s Marine Transportation program, he also holds a B.A. in History from the University of Rhode Island and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Trinity College Dublin.
His maritime operating experience includes ship handling, stability, dock / undock, dynamic positioning, regulatory compliance, and offshore wind construction. He has served as Chief Officer and Senior Dynamic Positioning Operator aboard Dynamic Positioning construction vessels supporting the Vineyard Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind projects. He holds a USCG Master, 1600 GT, Oceans, Master of Towing, Oceans, Dynamic Positioning Operator, Unlimited (Nautical Institute) and a Second Mate Unlimited license.
Christian previously held several positions of increasing responsibility with ExxonMobil across marine chartering, supply, refining, and LNG and lubricants. His work took him throughout the United States, Asia, and the Middle East, where he led global and regional commercial, operational, planning, and organizational development teams and initiatives built around maximizing value capture and customer experience and minimizing total delivered cost.
He and his wife, Tracy are also co-founders of Woodle & Company, an adaptive apparel business created to help children like their son, who wear ankle foot orthotic braces. Over the last eight years, the company has improved accessible and affordable sock options for tens of thousands of children and families in North America and Europe.
Christian’s teaching philosophy is grounded in high standards, clear communication, curiosity, and the belief that people learn in different ways. He strives to help students understand both the “what” and the “why,” connect classroom learning with real world practice, and develop safe, competent mariners and thoughtful, capable leaders serving the maritime industry, the Commonwealth and the world for decades ahead.