His research has principally been in francophone West Africa with a focus on issues related to migration. He has lived for over five years in Senegal and the neighboring nation of Mauritania, where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer, and he has travelled extensively throughout the continent. His first book, Longing for Exile: Migration and the Making of a Translocal Community in Senegal (West Africa) (Heinemann, 2002), explores the cultural and social history of urban migration in a Senegalese community. His most recent book (co-authored), Up from These Hills: Memories of Cherokee Boyhood (Nebraska [Bison Books], 2011), explores American Indian experience in the mid-20th century.