She is an anthropological bioarchaeologist who investigates how ancient imperial policies and practices structure health status, exposure to violence, and lived experience of ruling and subject peoples. Her research on the bioarchaeology of imperialism has focused on the Wari Empire of the Peruvian Andes, and more recently on the Inka Empire and early Spanish Empire in Peru. She is particularly interested in exploring how sociopolitical conditions structure violence and how it affects distinct subgroups within a population. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Current Anthropology, and Latin American Antiquity, among other journals and edited volumes. She is the author of the forthcoming volume Violence, Ritual, and the Wari Empire: A Social Bioarchaeology of Imperialism in the Ancient Andes.