William E. Watson was born in New York City. He is Professor of History at Immaculata University in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in Medieval History from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the director of the Duffy's Cut Project. He was a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council 2006–2007, and was also the recipient of the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award at Immaculata University for the year 2006–2007. Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Teachers' Institute at Immaculata University, "Duffy's Cut: Investigating Immigration, Industrialization and Illness in 19th-Century America" (July 2016)

Some of his publications in medieval history are available at De Re Militari, the medieval military history society:

Watson's paper at the University of Oregon conference The Millennium: Russia and Christianity AD 988-1988 (11 April 1988)

Watson's dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania: Watson, William Ernest (1 January 1990). The hammer and the crescent: Contacts between Andalusi Muslims, Franks, and their successors in three waves of Muslim expansion into Francia (dissertation).