My research focuses on understanding how people interact with landscapes, past and present, and how they make decisions about land use in the context of specific biological and social environments. I analyze archaeological remains in the context of historical and ethnographic records, ecological data, and behavioral theory to better understand the role of environment in human decision-making processes.

My dissertation uses the case study of Gordion, the capital of the Phrygian state of central Anatolia (modern Turkey), to understand the changing relationships between people and their botanic environment from roughly 800 BCE to the Medieval Period. I study both modern vegetation and archaeological wood and seeds recovered from excavations at Gordion between 1993 and 2002. The Gordion Project is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology where I work closely with Naomi Miller, Research Project Manager in the Near East Section of the Museum.

I work with the UCLA/RUG Fayum Project in Egypt, where my research aims to reconstruct woodland structure and wood use in the Neolithic and Roman Fayum. Through comparison of specific archaeological contexts at the Roman city of Karanis, I attempt to identify economic and ecological explanations for differences in wood use between areas of the Roman settlement.

I am also involved in the ongoing analysis and publication of botanical and faunal remains from UCLA/Albanian Institute of Archaeology excavations at the Iron Age tumulus of Lofkënd in Albania, as well as study of the ancient environment and diet of the individuals buried there.