Broadly, her area of research can be defined as critical intercultural communication. Within this realm of communication, she is interested in the ways individuals (re)produce and communicate their ever-changing identities. Specifically, her research has focused on the intersections of race and class. Her most recent work has explored the communication practices of a national nonprofit organization attempting to end poverty in the U.S. Within this work, she attempts to identify dominant ideologies, hegemonic systems that perpetuate such taken for granted beliefs, and status-based hierarchies. She is also interested in everyday performances of identity. In other words, her work explores the ways in which individuals perform their class(es) and race(s) in contexts such as the classroom, the workplace, and in close relationships.