Joseph A.P. Wilson
Archaeologist
Joseph A.P. Wilson is an anthropologist, archaeologist, and Lecturer in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Fairfield University.
A scholar of material culture, ancient weapons technologies, and the history of world religions, he has worked in museum collections and archaeological digs in North America and Europe.
He is a current member of the Society Council in Western Massachusetts for the Archaeological Institute of America, and the co-editor of The Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Education
PhD - Anthropology, University of Florida
MS - Industrial Archaeology, Michigan Technological University
MA - Oriental and African Religions, University of London SOAS
BS - Anthropology and Religious Studies, Kent State University. Phi Beta Kappa
Popular Press Interviews
Course Profile: Technology in the Ancient World : Classics lecturer Joseph Wilson brings ancient technology into a modern setting The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, 11 December 2025
Digging our Burrow's Cave with Joe Wilson : Archaeological Fantasies Episode 56, 4 October 2016
Tracking Languages with Eagles and Arrows. Yukon News. 2 Mar 2016.
Archaeology: Magic Caves in Illinois and other archaeological myths. Columbus Dispatch. 4 March 2013.
Select Peer-Reviewed Publications
• “Some of Them Want to Get Used by You: Outsider Archaeology’s Strategic Exploitation of Predatory Open Access Publication” in Stephanie Halmhofer and Robert Spinelli Eds. Pseudoarchaeology and Conspiracy in Contemporary Contexts, BAR Publishers, forthcoming 2027.
• Mother Earth is an Ancient Meme in the Global North, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 18 (2), 2024, 204-216.
• Late Holocene Technology Words in Proto-Athabaskan: Implications for Dene-Yeniseian Culture History, Humans 3 (3), 2023, 177-192.
• Recasting Paul as a Chauvinist in the Western Text-Type Manuscript Tradition: Implications for the Authorship Debate on 1 Corinthians 14.34-35, Religions 13(5), 2022, 435
• The Union of Two Worlds: Reconstructing Elements of Proto-Athabaskan Folklore and Religion, Folklore (London) 127(1):26-50, 2016.
• The Cave Who Never Was: Outsider Archaeology and Failed Collaboration in the U.S.A., Public Archaeology, 11 (2), 2012, 79-101.
• The Life of the Saint and the Animal: Asian Religious Influence in the Medieval Christian West, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 3 (2), 2009, 169-194.
• A New Perspective on Later Migrations: The Possible Recent Origin of Some Native American Haplotypes, Critique of Anthropology, 28 (3), 2008, 267-278.
• Novel FGFR3 Mutations in Exon 7 and Implications for Expanded Screening of Achondroplasia and Hypochondroplasia: a Response to Heuertz et al. European Journal of Human Genetics,16 (3), 2008, 277-278.
Popular Press/ Public Scholarship
· The Birth of Yoda: Manichaeism and the Jedi Religion VogelinView, 3 May 2022
· Decoding Scalia’s Secret Hunting Society: From Jägermeister to Medieval Heresy to Buddhist Legend Religion Dispatches, 26 Feb 2016.
· Why Programs like ‘Battlefield Recovery’ show that Archeologists’ Work with the Media is far from Done.(with Suzie Thomas) Society for Historical Archaeology News, 22 Feb 2016.