Her research focuses on two prominent and especially politically engaged lowland South American indigenous groups, the Xavante of central Brazil and the Wayuu of Venezuela and Colombia. Her work emphasizes native peoples' use of new media technologies. activities in national and international arenas, and advocacy. She is past chair of the American Anthropological Association's Committee for Human Rights (CfHR) and chaired CfHR's Task Group on Language and Social Justice. She served as consulting anthropologist on several documentary films on Wayuu and Xavante peoples. She is author the book, Performing Dreams: Discourses of immortality among the Xavante of central Brazil, and has written numerous scholarly articles. The ethnographic documentary film, Owners of the Water: Conflict and collaboration over rivers, is one of several collaborations with Wayuu and Xavante filmmakers.