Nelson's research focuses on cycles of social complexity and connectivity among the ancient cultures of northwestern Mexico and the American Southwest and on human roles in and responses to the desertification of grasslands.

Chance studies sociocultural anthropology, including race and class in Colonial Mexico.

Rush is a historian of Southeast Asia who explores themes of colonialism, religion, biography, and current affairs. His latest books are Hamka's Great Story and Southeast Asia: a very short introduction.

Thomas’s research and teaching focus on world cultural processes and their constitutive effects on authority, agency, and identity. He studies how these processes affect religions and how religions engage them.

Haines co-directs the Center of Muslim Experience in the U.S. As assoc. prof. of religious studies and cultural anthropologist, he studies marginal communities, Islamic values of peace, community well-being and lived ethics.

Sivak's interests include the politics of secession and self-determination, cultural globalization, and global cities.

Gil-Osle's interests include Spanish literature, golden age, Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, Celestina, Basque Studies, theater, comparative literature, friendship theory, networking theory, gender studies, and ekphrasis.

Nelson has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles in top academic journals, as well as Latin American case studies in the Thunderbird case series that are staples in business schools across the country.

Klinsky's work has continually centered around the justice dilemmas presented by climate change and climate change policy design.