Much of my research has been engaged with issues related to the political ecology of environmental degradation, indigenous rights, and conservation in Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo). My research in Sarawak initially focused on the international rainforest campaign centered on Penan hunter-gatherers, and I continue to be involved in efforts to seek acknowledgement of Penan land claims in oil palm plantations and national parks.

The major impacts of my research have been developing approaches for understanding organizational complexity and diversity in Indigenous Pre-Columbian eastern North America and in non-state societies globally. My work as an archaeologist is inherently comparative and multi-scalar and has evolved from the study of settlement aggregation in eastern North America to the development of theories, models, and approaches that productively interrogate the nature of premodern social and political organization across the globe.