Her research and teaching examines the impact of social inequalities on architecture and the built environment, with a particular focus on politics and cultural memory in black America, the history of race in modern architecture, and transnational labor in the global construction industry. Her publications include Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums (2012), a runner-up for the American Studies Association's John Hope Franklin Prize, and Begin with the Past: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016). She is currently writing a book on the influence of slavery on antebellum civic architecture.