His research focuses on the transcultural ramifications of slave gathering warfare in mainland Southeast Asia, Northeast India and coastal Bengal, with a special focus on enslaved artisans, religious rituals, and processes of creolization and cultural exchange. His research has received support from Fulbright-Hays (DDRA), the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Watumull Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. He received the World History Association's best dissertation award in 2014.

His research focus is the field of medicinal inorganic chemistry. Specifically, he is interested in the potential of transition metal compounds, particularly those of ruthenium, manganese, zinc and copper, to be used as proto-pharmaceuticals. Their use as agents in anticancer, antibacterial, and anti-diabetic chemotherapy is of primary interest. This is a multidisciplinary process involving chemistry, biology and biochemistry. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include inorganic and general chemistry. Beckford has a B.Sc. (Hons) in chemistry and a Ph.D.

He is a hybrid medium artist and musician that creates work at the intersection of sound art, computational design, networked systems, and mechanical life installation and sculpture. He is a lifetime fellow at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, one of the oldest new media art institutions, based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. His artwork has been displayed in the United States, Europe, Iran and China in exhibitions such as "Synthetic Times" and "Trans Life" at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing, and the Ho Gallery and Chelsea Museum, New York.

Dr. Bing Luo's research focuses on the theory and practice of federated/distributed machine learning and data analytics, wireless communications and networking, game theory, and optimization, with cutting-edge applications in edge-based artificial intelligence (Edge AI), privacy computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G/6G wireless systems.