Chaz is a scholar of slavery and abolition, revolutions, religiosity, and interspecies history, especially animals' roles in human societies. His research has spanned the sixteenth century through the twenty-first century across the Americas (the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America). Along with new publications in progress on animals, ecologies, and empires, he is also pursuing publicly-engaged research projects studying histories and perceptions of catastrophic risk, space, the human future, and the unknown.

History Workshop Journal, Past & Present, Historical Journal, English Historical Review, Modern American History, Atlantic Studies, Early American Studies, the Oxford Bibliographies in Latin American Studies, Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, and Sociales (Dominican Republic), among others, have published his research articles. He has contributed chapters to a few books.

He has recently finished two new books. These are, Canine Power: A Violent History of Race and Resilience (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2027), co-authored with Tyler D. Parry, and The Once & Future Cow: Agency, Appetite, and the Anthropocene (London: Bloomsbury, 2026), co-authored with Andrew Kettler.  Statusquotastrophe, a third new book co-authored with Marissa E. Yingling, is in progress and under contract.

Siblings of Soil: Dominicans & Haitians in the Age of Revolutions (Austin: University of Texas Press, Lozano Long Series in Latin American Culture, 2022), his first book, received Honorable Mention for the Duarte Prize from Latin American Studies Association Haiti & Dominican Republic Section in 2023. This book is built from extensive research in multiple langauges from over two dozen archives in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Spain, the Vatican, the United Kingdom, and beyond. He co-edited the book Free Communities of Color and the Revolutionary Caribbean (London: Routledge, 2018) with Rob Taber.

Chaz has undertaken several collaborations and equally co-authored projects with colleagues.  His work has been funded by the Ministry of Culture and Education of Spain, the Conference on Latin American History, the Bilinski Foundation, the Academy of American Franciscan History, the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, and the Harvard University Atlantic History Seminar, among others.  He held visiting affiliations with the University of Toronto and York University during a sabbatical in the 2023-2024 academic year. He has contributed commentary to, and had his research discussed by, BBC News, Vice News, the USA Today network, Business Insider, Der Spiegel, Popular Mechanics, and other media.

He regularly presents research papers at venues such as the American Historical Association, Southern Historical Association, American Society for Environmental History, Omohundro Institute, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, and specialty conferences at King's College London, Universidade de Lisboa, Duke University, Rice University, Vanderbilt University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Utah, UCLA, Washington University of St. Louis, and beyond. He has also recently given invited talks or presentations for events and seminars at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Toronto, University of Massachusetts Boston, Alfred University, Louisville Public Library, Marshall University, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Mississippi College. He previously served as Editor for H-Atlantic and regularly peer reviews for journals and presses.

He was President of the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the SHA in 2024 for their Kansas City conference, and for 2025-2027 he will serve as a member of the Executive Council of the Southern Historical Association representing LACS. He was elected a Fellow (FRHistS) of the Royal Historical Society in 2026.