For the most part, my research relates to a long-standing interest in the nature of the colonial experience in Latin America, which varied markedly from place to place. The regional setting I am most familiar with is Central America, specifically Guatemala, but over the years I have conducted research throughout Latin America, from Mexico in the north to Argentina and Chile in the south, including some work on Brazil. A central issue of my research is indigenous response to imperial intrusion. Of particular importance in this regard are patterns of native survival. Why, for example, were the Maya of Guatemala (today still close to half the national population) more successful in shaping a culture of survival than their autochthonous counterparts elsewhere in the Americas? What were the key determinants in the complex process of cultural continuity as well as cultural change? Answering these questions requires careful consideration (among other factors) of contact-period culture, environment and resource use, landholding and settlement, economic demands and ethnic relations, and demographic shifts over time. The colonial connection between Old World disease and New World depopulation has consumed much of my attention. In 1996, my work in these fields earned me the Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award from the Conference of Latin American Geography, a laurel that was followed by a Queen's University Prize for Excellence in Research in 2013 and an Award for Scholarly Distinction in Geography from the Canadian Association of Geographers in 2014. That same year, in recognition of my research achievements, I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2012-13 I was the recipient a Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts, only one of a handful of geographers to be so honoured. Likewise, in 2016 I was one of very few non-US citizens elected to serve as President of the American Society for Ethnohistory. In 2018, the Conference of Latin American Geography bestowed on me its Preston E. James Eminent Career Award, my second such honour from the professional body I identify with most.

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While the study of colonial Latin America is the subject I would consider my primary area of specialization, I am interested in other aspects of historical and cultural geography as they relate to regions outside of Latin America, especially Spain, where (as part of my affiliation with the Universidad Pablo de Olavide) I also supervise graduate students. I consider it important that, as academics, we try to share the results of our research with an interested general public and publish in languages other than English. With these ends in mind I have published op-ed pieces in the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the Ottawa Citizen as well as having my work translated into languages other than English, in Spanish, French, Italian, and Catalan. On two occasions (1995 and 2005) stories I have written have been short-listed in the CBC Literary Awards competition. My love of music is reflected in two memoirs about the British rock group, Procol Harum.

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Also central to my research endeavours has been my co-editorship (with Armando J. Alfonzo) of the journal Mesoamérica, published in Spanish as a venture that began life forty years ago with the founding of Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA) in Antigua, Guatemala. Over the past four decades Mesoamérica has emerged as the premier forum for scholarly research on the region between Mexico and Panama. Between 1998 and 2008 I co-edited issues 36 through 50 of Mesoamérica, as well as a bibliographical guide (Indice General) to the contents of all fifty numbers of the journal then published to date. I continue to serve Mesoamérica both as contributor and member of its editorial board, my ties to CIRMA ongoing too.

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