Gregory Wilson

Gregory Wilson is a Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2005), an MA from the University of Oklahoma (1998), and a BA from Southern Illinois University (1994). His research focuses on social inequality, identity politics, and warfare in pre-Columbian North and South America, particularly in the Mississippi Valley and southeastern United States. He leads the Social Archaeology Research Group, which explores these themes through household-centered archaeology and large-scale datasets.

Current projects include a National Science Foundation-funded study on the impacts of warfare on Mississippian communities in the Central Illinois River Valley, revealing trade-offs between food security and violence avoidance. Wilson also investigates Cahokia’s northern expansion, highlighting cultural continuity amid change. His teaching spans ethics in archaeology, lithic analysis, and theoretical archaeology.

Wilson’s research group includes graduate students like Kaitlin Brown (Chumash colonial archaeology) and Christina Friberg (Midwestern Mississippian studies). The group uses geophysical methods, GIS, and experimental archaeology. His work has been published in journals like American Antiquity and Southeastern Archaeology.