Wright is a landscape archaeologist with a research focus on East Asia. He studies the monumentality and movement, settlement patterns, mobile pastoralist economies, political landscapes, and the spatial structure of communities in many contexts. Currently he carries out research in Mongolia and China using primarily archaeological survey and other spatial data sources. His scholarly interests include the anthropology of mobility, the history of archaeology, the application of the archaeological perspective to the modern human experience of the past, studying the way that archaeological and other material remains of the past are interpreted as they are discovered and transformed into public presentations.
Previously, Wright was one of the directors of the first intensive archaeological surveys in Eastern Eurasia, the Egiin Gol Survey (1997-2002) and the Baga Gazaryn Chuluu Project (2004-2008) in Mongolia and key member of the Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey (2007-2010). He was also a participant in field research on the origins of rice agriculture, and the foundations of the Bronze Age Erlitou and Shang states. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University (2006, Anthropology) where he studied the adoption of nomadic pastoralism and the dynamics of subsistence and landscape in Northern Mongolia and before that an M.Phil. from Cambridge University (East Asia Archaeology 1995) with a thesis on Neolithic Dawenkou culture mortuary ritual. In addition to China and Mongolia, he has carried out fieldwork in Greece,Turkey, China, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Greece, Mexico, India, Pakistan Jordan and Belize.
Internal Memberships
Convener of the Northern Archaeology Research Seminar Series
Member of the Geosciences IT working group and Virtual Learning Environment Teaching and Learning Group
Director of Education for the School of Geosciences
[Re]Integrating a dispersed agenda: advancing archaeological research in Central Eurasia
Rouse, L. M., Doumani Dupuy, P. N., Abdykanova, A., Brite, E. b., Hermes, T. R., Kidd, F., Luneau, E., Miller, B. k., Radivojević, M., Shnaider, S., Tabaldyev, K., Ventresca-Miller, A., Wright, J.
The sanctuary at Keros in the Aegean Early Bronze Age: from centre of congregation to centre of power
Renfrew, C., Boyd, M. J., Athanasoulis, D., Brodie, N., Carter, T., Dellaporta, K., Floquet, M., Gavalas, G., Georgakopoulou, M., Gkouma, M., Hilditch, J., Krijnen, A., Legaki, I., Margaritis, E., Marthari, M., Moutafi, I., Philaniotou, O., Sotirakopoulou, P., Wright, J.
