About

Gregory Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialization is in archaeology, with a focus on emergent complexity, identity politics, and warfare, particularly in Eastern North America, including the Mississippi valley and interior southeastern United States. His archaeological research is concerned with issues of social inequality, identity politics, and violence in pre-Columbian North and South America, informed by contemporary theoretical research on human agency, practice, and political economy. Wilson conducts household and community-centered archaeology, emphasizing methodologically rigorous analysis of large and diverse datasets. His current research includes a collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation that explores the consequences of war on Mississippian period communities in the Central Illinois River Valley, revealing how these groups sacrificed food security and health to minimize exposure to inter-group violence. He also investigates identity politics in the context of the northern expansion of the Mississippian cultural frontier, linked to the regional consolidation of Cahokia, the largest and most complex Native American polity in North America. His work has contributed to understanding cultural change and continuity in Cahokia’s northern hinterlands.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Archaeology
• Geography
• Political Science
• Demography
• Law
• History
• Anthropology
• Ecology
• Biology

Selected publications

• War, Power, History:

  University of Arizona Press eBooks · 2025-06-17

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• SAT-373 Veil of Hives: An Unusual Case Presentation of Autoimmune Thyroiditis as Acute Spontaneous Urticaria

  Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Disclosure: N. Krueger: None. M. Shah: None. H. Alfar: None. R. Gajjar: None. D. Cornejo Gonzalez: None. D. Bisonó: None. G. Wilson: None. Introduction: Urticaria is a type of skin rash that leads to erythematous pruritic wheals that vary in size and distribution, with or without edema. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there has been an association of urticaria with autoimmune thyroid disease. We report a case where the only presenting symptom of autoimmune thyroiditis was a diffuse urticarial rash with angioedema. Case Report A 32 year old healthy female presented with new onset pruritic rash for 2 weeks. The rash worsened 3 days prior to presentation despite using OTC antihistamines along with development of orofacial swelling which prompted urgent medical evaluation. She reported sore throat, chills, and diffuse arthralgias involving her hands, knee and ankle joints but denied any other symptoms. She denied a history of similar symptoms, reported to have no allergies, recent sick contacts, pet exposure, or changes in hygienic routines within the past month. She immigrated from Venezuela 8 months before presentation and reported no significant travel history since arrival. She received a progestin dermal implant for contraception about 2 months prior and denied routine use of medications. On presentation, the patient was hemodynamically stable and afebrile. Initial otolaryngological evaluation showed no airway involvement. The patient was admitted to the medicine floor for further evaluation with the infectious disease and allergy-immunology teams consulted. Initial infectious workup was unremarkable including a rapid strep throat swab and full respiratory viral panel. She was given intravenous methylprednisolone, and H1 and H2 antagonists Famotidine and Diphenhydramine with slight improvement of her symptoms. Extended workup was pursued, with normal CBC, CMP, toxicology screen and urinalysis. Further infectious workup was unremarkable including Lyme serology, heterophile antigen test, anti-streptolysin O titers, and Epstein Barr virus, Coxsackie virus, Parvovirus B19, Hepatitis, and HIV. Autoimmune workup with ANA, RF, CCP and complement levels was unrevealing. C1q complement and C1INH were unremarkable. Thyroid function tests were sent due to generalized swelling, which came back significantly abnormal with TSH elevated to 145 (n 0.34-5.6 uIU/mL) and an undetectable free T4 (n 0.61-1.64 ng/dL). Anti-TPO antibodies were sent and elevated to >1000 (n <8.99 IU/mL). The Endocrinology team was consulted and after excluding concomitant adrenal insufficiency, the patient was started on levothyroxine. Her urticarial rash fully dissipated and she was discharged on levothyroxine and antihistamines. At 2 months follow up, she reported feeling well with no recurrence of symptoms. Conclusion: In patients that present with new onset urticarial rash of unclear etiology, it is imperative to check thyroid function tests as this is a potential dermatological manifestation of autoimmune thyroid disease. Presentation: Saturday, July 12, 2025

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hunting, fishing, and foraging in times of conflict: the implications of choosing safety in the Mississippian Central Illinois River Valley

  Southeastern Archaeology · 2024-11-12

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Deer, drought, and warfare: Managing risk in the central Illinois river valley (CIRV) from the eleventh through fourteenth centuries

  Quaternary International · 2023 · 6 citations

  • Archaeology
  • Geography
  • Ecology

  We investigated how Mississippian residents of the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV) altered their hunting strategies in response to climate change and warfare in the 13th and 14th centuries. The CIRV, located in west-central Illinois just north of Greater Cahokia, was characterized by optimal climatic conditions in the 11th and 12th centuries, followed by centuries of drought and warfare. We integrated paleoclimatic reconstructions and evidence of violence with bone collagen and apatite isotopic analyses on white-tailed deer remains to investigate how CIRV residents minimized risks associated with white-tailed deer hunting. This is the first study in this region to effectively use δ13Capatite measurements to show the selective consumption of maize by white-tailed deer. Our results indicate that there were varied responses to climate change and conflict that were socially contingent upon community size. Notably, deer hunted by residents of Roskamp, occupied in the 13th century during the period of warfare, had highly elevated δ13Capatite values, demonstrating residents partook in garden hunting.

  PublisherDOI

• The geophysics of community, place, and identity in the Mississippian Illinois River Valley

  Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2021 · 8 citations

  • Sociology
  • Archaeology
  • Geography
  PublisherDOI

• Transregional Social Fields of the Early Mississippian Midcontinent

  2020-01-07

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Transregional Social Fields of the Early Mississippian Midcontinent

  Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · 2020 · 15 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Archaeology
  PublisherDOI

• The Cahokian Crucible: Burning Ritual and the Emergence of Cahokian Power in the Mississippian Midwest

  American Antiquity · 2019-07-01 · 16 citations

  articleSenior author

  Much of what is known about the Indigenous city of Cahokia, located in and influential on the North American midcontinent during the eleventh through fourteenth centuries AD, derives from decades of salvage, research, and CRM excavations in the surrounding American Bottom region. We use this robust dataset to explore patterns of building conflagration that suggest these practices of burning were part of pre-Mississippian traditions that were bundled into new Cahokian landscapes during the early consolidation of the city. These bundled practices entangled sources of power that were at once political and religious, thus transforming the practices and meanings associated with terminating building use via fire.

  PublisherDOI

• Exploring emotional trajectories of engineering students: a narrative research approach

  International Journal of Engineering Education · 2018-01-01 · 35 citations

  articleOpen access

  As the problems that engineers are framing and solving are becoming more complex, it is becoming critical to develop amore nuanced understanding of learning that encompasses more than separate knowing and includes connected knowing.To better understand connected knowing within engineering students, we explore the role of emotion in engineeringeducation. In particular, we attend to the primary research question, how do emotions underpin the narratives ofengineering students? This narrative research project involved conducting interviews with 21 undergraduate engineeringstudents from year one to five in their engineering program and from a diversity of engineering disciplines. Our findingssuggest a trajectory of emotions including enjoyment of pre-engineering activities, nervousness about core classes,frustration and discouragement with core classes, and finally an overall satisfaction with the educational experience. Twoconstructed narratives are included to provide the reader with an individualized, contextual, and complex view of the livedreality of emotional trajectories. As engineering educators, the emotions of our engineering students may prove critical aswe are preparing engineering graduates to make decisions and to contribute to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

  Publisher

• Agency in Action

  Journal of Technical Writing and Communication · 2017-09-21 · 6 citations

  article1st author

  In 2014, Rawlins and Wilson proposed a typology of agential interactions between users and designers of interactive data displays. This article tests that typology by studying 20 users working with three different types of interactive data displays and answering questions, which were coded by verb and actor and analyzed for themes. The authors show that rhetorical agency is marked by thoughts, actions, and language. Affordances by the designer open a shared rhetorical space where user and designer are coparticipants. As interactivity increases, participants see themselves as rhetorical agents in a community of rhetorical agents rather than as conduits of information.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research - Living with War: The Impacts of Chronic Violence on Everyday Life in the Central Illinois River Valley

  NSF · $280k · 2011–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Amber M. VanDerwarker

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  9 shared

• Jeremy J. Wilson

  5 shared

• Dana N. Bardolph

  Northern Illinois University

  4 shared

• Steven R. Kuehn

  Illinois Archaeological Survey

  3 shared

• Jacob D. Rawlins

  Brigham Young University

  2 shared

• Sarah J. Noe

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  2 shared

• Duane Esarey

  Illinois State Museum

  2 shared

• Christina M. Friberg

  Indiana University Bloomington

  1 shared