Joanna studied at University College London, receiving a BA in Archaeology in 2010 and an MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies in 2012. In the latter, she combined Anglo-Saxon archaeology, languages and literature.
After graduating, Joanna volunteered and worked for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, recording archaeological finds made by members of the public. She first joined the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2016, working on a project to pack and catalogue the Museum’s reserve collections, before moving to the British Museum to work on a similar project packing, moving and rehousing the stored ethnographic collections. She returned to the Pitt Rivers Museum as assistant curator in June 2018.