The son of the theologian Robert Stupperich, he studied history, Greek, Latin and classical archaeology at the University of Münster from 1970 to 1971.
From 1975 to 1976 he studied classical and provincial Roman archaeology as well as ancient history at the University of Oxford.
In the summer of 1976 he was involved in excavations at the Roman villa of Gorhambury in Verulamium and in Mycenaean beehive tombs in Messinia.
Since Volume 23 (2016–2018), Thetis has been published by Stupperich alone and under the new subtitle Mannheimer Beiträge zur Archäologie und Geschichte der antiken Mittelmeerkulturen ("Mannheim Contributions to the Archaeology and History of Ancient Mediterranean Cultures"), and is, therefore, dedicated only to topics of classical studies.
Since the same time, the series Peleus has been published without Stupperich's participation and is limited to topics in the modern history of Greece and Cyprus.