He has been an active participant in efforts to expand environmental and sustainability content in the UTA curriculum. His own research explores the environmental history of the U.S. South, and of rivers and wetlands globally. He has published a comparative history of agriculture and sustainability in the Mississippi, Senegal, Kaveri, and Pearl River deltas. His book, The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples, from Hernando de Soto to Hurricane Katrina, will be published by Oxford University Press next year.