Most of her research has focused on health impacts of agricultural development in Africa, including the countries of lesotho, Swaziland, and Kenya. she is the co-editor of six books and the author of numerous articles on health and nutrition in populations dealing with environmental and economic change. Her current work on cosmetic surgery comes out of a concern for the nature of healing in widely disparate medical systems. She explains this as a shift in focus from asking how people get sick to asking how people get well. She is currently working on a book on therapeutic narrative and cosmetic surgery.