Rate My Professor Matthew Williamson

Matthew Williamson serves as Associate Professor of Human Anatomy and Physiology in the Department of Health Sciences and Kinesiology within Georgia Southern University’s Waters College of Health Professions. Since joining the institution in 1999, he has taken on key leadership roles, including Director of the Body Donation Program and Editor of the Occasional Papers of the Turks and Caicos Islands National Museum. Williamson’s academic background includes a Ph.D. in Anthropology with an emphasis in Bioarchaeology from Purdue University in 1998, a Master of Arts in Anthropology with an emphasis in Forensic Anthropology from the University of South Carolina-Columbia in 1992, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the same institution in 1990.

His research specializations encompass human osteology, human biological variation, and paleopathology. Williamson has conducted research on prehistoric Native American health in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States and cemetery research in the Caribbean. He has served as a forensic anthropology consultant for law enforcement agencies in Georgia, South Carolina, Illinois, and Indiana. He teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology and Pathophysiology on the Statesboro campus and online. Key publications include “A review of the coracoclavicular joint: Description, etiology, and clinical significance” in Clinical Anatomy (2023), “From Households to Bathing Rituals: Biocultural Aspects of Life in Late Prehistoric North Georgia” (2020, with M. C. Griffin), and presentations such as “Fort Laurens: Investigation of an Ambush during Colonial Expansion into Ohio Country” (2024) and “The Bones Speak: How Forensic Anthropologists Contribute to Forensic Analysis” (2025). Williamson received the Bernd Spiessel Research Award in 2001.