He is a specialist in early American history from the pre-contact period to the early republic and has published in the Journal of the Early Republic. With a research focus that centers primarily on the mid-Atlantic region and the Chesapeake, the early history of Petersburg represents an important component of his teaching and publishing activities. He is currently researching Virginia and the Atlantic world from the late seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth century when Petersburg served as a vital entrepot for the expanding tobacco economy and the growing backcountry trade.