The primary focus of his research is mortuary contexts in caves and rockshelters in the Caves Branch River and Roaring Creek valleys, in which he seeks to reconstruct funerary pathways and explore aspects of social identity among those placed there. These data inform broader archaeological questions about the sudden and dramatic appearance of sociopolitical complexity in the area during the Middle Classic period, as well as its depopulation in the Terminal Classic period. While most of his research has concentrated on ancient Maya contexts in Belize, he has also worked in the American Southeast, in Kyrgyzstan and in Egypt at the site of Hierakonpolis.