Photo of Mathew Walls standing at a fieldsite, the Archaeological Survey at Apparsuit, NW Greenland. He is surrounded by rocks with a field and oceans behind him. He is smiling at the camera.

Dr. Matthew Walls

PhD

Positions

Associate Professor

Faculty of Arts, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology

Contact information

Email

matthew.walls@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

ORCID

Google Scholar

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Research partners

Transdisciplinary and community based partners for exploring the deep history of human-environment relationships, and how this structures the present

Learning opportunities

Graduate students with backgrounds in paleoecology, archaeology, geomatics, cognitive ethnography, and political ecology

Background

Educational Background

Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology, University of Toronto, 2014

Master of Arts Archeology, University of Calgary, 2008

Biography

Dr. Matthew Walls studies the deep history of community-environment relationships, and how people come to perceive and act together in a world that is always in flux. His work produces theory on the role of creativity in long term process, and focuses on questions that address the ecology of knowledge, how it is constructed and attuned between generations, and the dynamics of practice-based communities through time. 

Dr. Walls obtained his Masters in Archeology from the University of Calgary and his PhD from the University of Toronto. He served as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford from 2014-2016, before returning to the University of Calgary as a member of faculty. He teaches a number of courses relating to archeology and particularly the archeology of the arctic and high north.

Dr. Walls’ current research projects are located within hunter-gatherer communities and he directs archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork in Greenland and Czech Republic.

Research

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Human Dynamics in a Changing World (2015-2021)

One Health (2020-2025)

Transdisciplinary Research

Cities and Societies

Democracy, Justice, and Sustainability

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
ANTH 308 Roots of the Anthropocene Fall 2025
ARKY 504 Archaeology and Heritage Winter 2026
ARKY 423 Arctic Archaeology Winter 2023
ARKY 70108 LEC 01 01 Archaeology in a Changing North 2021
ARKY 531 Cognitive Archaeology Fall 2025
ARKY 70109 LEC 02 02 GIS in Archaeology 2021
ANTH 39908 LEC 01 01 Roots of the Anthropocene 2021
ARKY 205 LEC 01 01 Ancient Peoples And Places 2020
ARKY 53107 LEC 01 01 Adv Topics in Archaeology 2020
ARKY 590 LEC 01 01 Honours Thesis 2020
ARKY 590 LEC 01 01 Honours Thesis 2020
ARKY 423 LEC Archaeology of the Arctic 2020
ARKY 70107 LEC 01 01 Special Topics in World ARKY 2021
ANTH 308 Roots of the Anthropocene Winter 2026
ARKY 504 Archaeology and Heritage Winter 2026
ARKY 205 World Archaeology Fall 2026
ARKY 531 Cognitive Archaeology Fall 2026
ANTH 501 Seminar in Historical Ecology Fall 2026
ANTH 408 Historical Ecology of the Arctic Winter 2027

Projects

MITEQ: Inughuit-Directed Responses to Environmental Change in the High Arctic

Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF). Mari Kleist (principal investigator) & Matthew Walls (co-principal investigator). 2025-2030: 

Project Description

Fire and Ancient Forest Stewardship: Assessing Human Agency in the Post-Glacial Biodiversity of Central Europe

SSHRC Insight Grant 2025-2030  https://kcr-mesolithic.com/

 

Inughuit Creativity and Environmental Responsiveness (ICER)

SSHRC Insight Grant - 2017-2022

A Molecular Perspective on Ecological Creativity during the Mesolithic of Central Europe

SSHRC Insight Development Grant - 2018-2022

Publications

Google Scholar

ORCID

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