His research focuses on how civic and social activists have shaped metropolitan development and environmental protection in the United States during the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is currently revising a book manuscript entitled, Contesting Growth: Politics, Social Action, and the Environment in Metropolitan Washington that will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press for its series on Politics and Culture in Modern America. He teaches courses on U.S. environmental and urban history, American politics, and the history of modern empires.