His research interests focus on the history and geography of Spanish and Mexican land grants and the social movements and contemporary resource conflicts linked to those histories. His Ph.D. dissertation detailed the dispossession of two Mexican-era land grants and the contemporary (mis)management of the Carson National Forest in the El Rito area. Beginning in the summer of 2008, he will be on leave from his current position to complete a book documenting the history of state formation and social movements in New Mexico tentatively titled, In a Violent State: Social Protest and Political Repression in New Mexico.