She specializes in the historical study of Austronesian languages spoken in the Pacific, in particular the comparison and reconstruction of grammatical structures and the prehistory of Oceania through linguistic reconstruction. She has conducted research as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University (2000-2002) and the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden (2006-2007). She is the current President of the International Society for Historical Linguistics (2009-2011). Her major works include: Proto Central Pacific ergativity (Canberra: Pacific Linguistics) and “Did Proto-Oceanians cultivate Cyrtosperma taro?” (People and Culture in Oceania).