Since 1976 he has been a member of the Greek and Roman Studies Department of the University of Victoria, Canada, where he was appointed Distinguished Professor in 2003.
In 1997, along with McCann Taggart, he was a project archaeologist at the Skerki Bank Deep Water Shipwreck Survey, directed by Robert Ballard.
From 1986 until 2005 he directed survey and excavation at the site of Hawara (modern Humayma), a Nabataean, Roman, and Early Islamic centre in the Hisma Desert of southern Jordan.
[3] As of 2010[update] Oleson has published ten books and more than 95 articles concerning ancient technology, marine archaeology, the Nabataeans, and the Roman Near East.
[4] In 2010 the Royal Society of Canada awarded Oleson the Pierre Chauveau Medal for "distinguished contribution to knowledge in the humanities.