Trained as a cultural anthropologist, Hannaford's expertise spans the fields of transnational migration, international development, gender and sexuality, and the confluence of economic and affective life. She is the author of "Marriage Without Borders: Transnational Spouses in Neoliberal Senegal" (Penn Press, 2017), co-editor of "Opting Out: Women Messing with Marriage Around the World" (forthcoming, Rutgers University Press), and author of multiple articles in top peer-reviewed journals in Gender Studies; African Studies and the social sciences. Her new research examines the nexus between the international development industry, care work, and migration through an ethnographic study on expat aid workers and their domestic workers.