Dr. Justin St. P. Walsh

Dr. Justin St. P. Walsh

Professor, Chair, Department of Art
Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Department of Art
Expertise: Mediterranean Archaeology; Greek Pottery; Protection of Cultural Heritage; Space Archaeology;
Office Location: Smith Hall 1D
Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday, 12:15pm – 12:50pm, by appointment
Phone: (714) 628-7376
Scholarly Works:
Digital Commons
Education:
Vanderbilt University, Bachelor of Arts
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Master of Arts
The University of Virginia, Ph.D.

Biography

Justin Walsh is a leading scholar in the new field of space archaeology, which studies the material culture of human activity in outer space and human activity on Earth that is directed at space. He was selected as a member of the Explorer Club 50 in 2024, one of “50 remarkable explorers changing the world and extending the meaning of exploration.”

In 2015, he created the first archaeological effort to investigate a human habitat in space, the International Space Station Archaeological Project, and he has co-directed ISSAP since then. In 2022, ISSAP carried out the first archaeological work in space, an experiment called SQuARE that had astronauts on the ISS document six sample locations around the space station with daily photography for a two-month period. ISSAP has received national recognition in the form of the Archaeological Institute’s 2023 Award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association’s 2023 General Anthropology Division New Directions Award. The project has been covered by global media including CNN, NPR, CBC Radio, PBS NOVA, Scientific American, Popular Science, The New York Times, WIRED, Ars Technica, Inverse, Archaeology magazine, Discover magazine, Smithsonian magazine, Cosmos magazine (Australia), R+D Magazine, PM History magazine (Germany), Space.com, CollectSpace, Forbes.com, and Agencia SINC (Spain).

Walsh also researches and teaches Mediterranean art and archaeology. He is listed in the Register of Professional Archaeologists. He has worked on excavations in the United States, Spain, Jordan, and Italy (particularly at the site of Morgantina, in east-central Sicily), since 1998. In 2014, he began a new collaborative project on the Iberian indigenous settlement of Cástulo, in Andalusia, with archaeologists from the University of Jaén and the Andalusian regional government. This work has been supported by grants from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation and the National Geographic Society. Walsh’s publications have concerned imported Greek pottery found across western Europe, and the implications of that material for a new consumer-oriented perspective on the ancient economy. A general monograph on the relationship between economic consumption and identity in the western Mediterranean and trans-Alpine Europe, titled "Consumerism in the Ancient World: Imports and Identity Construction," was published by Routledge Press in 2014 (paperback 2020).

Walsh’s other work includes problems related to cultural heritage management, both ancient and modern. He is a founding member of the ICOMOS Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage, and has led efforts to protect the historic district of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. He is also working to document human heritage on Mars.

He has received multiple awards and fellowships, including a Fulbright Grant to Greece in 2002-2003, a Rome Prize in 2003-2004, the inaugural Arthur Ross Advanced Research Fellowship from the Institute for Classical Architecture and Classical America in 2008, and a Tytus Summer Residency Fellowship from the Burnam Classics Library at the University of Cincinnati in 2010. In 2016, Walsh was Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of Bristol (UK). Since 2023, he has been Ad Astra Fellow in Space Habitats and Space Anthropology in the Space Engineering Research Center at the University of Southern California. Within Chapman, he has received multiple awards for his scholarly work as well as his collaborations with student researchers.

 

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

“Archaeology in a Vacuum: Obstacles to and Solutions for Developing a Real Space Archaeology.” Co-author with A.C. Gorman. In Archaeology Outside the Box: Investigations at the Edge of the Discipline, H. Barnard, ed. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. 131-123.
“Adapting to Space: The International Space Station Archaeological Project.” A.C. Gorman and J.F. Salazar Sutil, eds. Routledge Handbook to Social Studies of Outer Space. Routledge: London. 400-412.
“First Approximation of Population Distributions on the International Space Station.” Co-author with R.H. Ali, A.C. Gorman, and A.K. Kashefi. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.
“Sending Fossils into Space Ignites Age-Old Debate.” Co-author with D.W. Kgotleng, Robyn Pickering, Chris Stantis, and Rebecca Wragg Sykes. Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, 5 November 2023.
Review of Athens, Etruria, and the Many Lives of Greek Figured Pottery, by S.D. Bundrick. In the American Journal of Archaeology 126 (2).
“The Post-Orbital Chain of Custody: The Processing of Artifacts Returning to Earth from the International Space Station.” Co-author with P. Castaño and A.C. Gorman. Acta Astronautica 195: 513-531.
“Automated Identification of Astronauts onboard the International Space Station: A Case Study in Space Archaeology.” Co-author with R.H. Ali, A.K. Kashefi, E. Linstead, and A.C. Gorman. Acta Astronautica 200: 262-269.
“Visual Displays in Space Station Culture: An Archaeological Analysis.” Co-author with A.C. Gorman and W. Salmond. Current Anthropology 62 (6): 804-818.
“A Methodology for Space Archaeology Research: The International Space Station Archaeological Project.” Co-author with A.C. Gorman. Antiquity 95 (383). https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.114
“Outer space – the final frontier for the art market?” Co-author with A.C. Gorman. Apollo, 21 October 2021.
“Private space stations are coming. Will they be better than their predecessors?” Co-author with A.C. Gorman. The Conversation, 5 December 2021.
"The Three-Body Problem of Human Factors in the Space Environment." Co-author with M. Lowe, T. Weiss, and A. Nay. Research white paper for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences Research in Space 2023-2032.
“Sicily.” In A Companion to Greeks Across the Ancient World, F. De Angelis, ed. Wiley-Blackwell. 295-317.
“Photography and the International Space Station Archaeological Project.” Essay in Interior Space: A Visual Exploration of the International Space Station: Photographs by Paolo Nespoli and Roland Miller. R. Miller, ed. Damiani Editore.
“Eternity in Low Earth Orbit: Icons on the International Space Station.” Co-author with W. Salmond and A.C. Gorman. Religions 11: 611. Special issue, “The Mutual Influence of Religion and Science in the Human Understanding and Exploration of Outer Space,” D. Weibel and G. Swanson, eds. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11110611
“How to Live in Space: What We’ve Learned from 20 years of the International Space Station.” Co-author with A.C. Gorman. The Conversation, 1 November 2020. Also published by the Guardian and Space.com.
Interviewed for the ArchaeoTech podcast, November 26, 2020
Sole expert contributor on protection and management of lunar heritage sites to Lunar Surface Science Workshop 4 report on planetary protection commissioned by NASA Science Mission Directorate (Planetary Science Division), Office of the Chief Scientist, and Office of Planetary Protection.
"Contextualizing Greek Imports at Hallstatt Sites.” In Was tranken die frühen Kelten? Bedeutungen und Funktionen mediterraner Importgefäße im früheisenzeitlichen Mitteleuropa, P. Stockhammer and J. Fries-Knoblauch, eds. Sidestone Press. 287-297.
“Pottery: Abundance, Choice, and Consumption.” In Abundance: The Archaeology of Plenitude, M.L. Smith, ed. University Press of Colorado. 181-199.
“A Silver Service and a Gold Coin.” International Journal of Cultural Property 24 (3): 253-294.
ISS Archaeology, website and blog of the International Space Station Archaeological Project. In collaboration with Alice Gorman.
“Cástulo in the 21st Century: A Test Site for a New Digital Information System.” Co-author with M. Castro, F. Arias, L. Serrano, M. Serrano, A. Martínez, and J.M. Pedrosa. In Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: The Potential of Digital Archaeology. U. of North Dakota Digital Press. 319-335.
“Purposeful Ephemera: The Implications of Self-Destructing Space Technology for the Future Practice of Archaeology.” In Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space. B.L. O’Leary and P.J. Capelotti, eds. Space and Society series. Springer Verlag. 75-90.
Review of "The Construction of Value in the Ancient World" (Cotsen Advanced Seminar Series Vol. 5). J.K. Papadopoulos and G. Urton, eds. UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. In the American Journal of Archaeology 119 (4).
“Marion True Does Not Deserve Our Sympathy.” Blog post for Hyperallergic, 2 October 2015.
“Skeuomorphic Pottery and Consumer Feedback Processes in the Ancient Mediterra-nean.” In Knowledge Networks and Craft Traditions in the Ancient World: Materi-al Crossovers. Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Ann Brysbaert, and Lin Foxhall, eds. Routledge Press. 147-159.
Review of The Imagery of the Athenian Symposium, by Kathryn Topper. In the Journal of Hellenic Studies 134.
Review of "Vessels and Variety: New Aspects of Ancient Pottery" (Acta Hyperborea 13), Hanne Thomasen, Annette Rathje, and Kristine Bøggild Johannsen, eds. In the American Journal of Archaeology 118 (2).
"Consumerism in the Ancient World: Imports and Identity Construction." Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies 17. Routledge Press: New York.
"Athenian Black Gloss Pottery: A View from the West." In the Oxford Journal of Archaeology 33 (1): 47-67. Co-author with Carla M. Antonaccio.
“Consumption and Choice in Ancient Sicily.” In Regionalism and Globalism in Antiquity: Exploring Their Limits. Franco De Angelis, ed. Ancient West and East, Colloquia Antiqua 7. Peeters. 229-246.
“Archaeology of Sicily and Magna Graecia.” Entry in the Springer Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer Verlag.
Review of "Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration," American Museum of Natural History, New York, 19 November 2011-12 August 2012. In Museum and Society 10 (1): 66-68.
“Protection of Humanity’s Cultural and Historic Heritage in Space.” 2012. Space Policy 28 (4): 234-243.
“The Final Environmental Frontier: Space Development and Its Consequences.” Guest blog for Scientific American, 2 March 2012.
“Urbanism and Identity at Classical Morgantina.” In Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 56/57: 115-136.

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