Karen Harry specializes in the study of ceramic technology, production, and distribution and in the archaeology of the North American Southwest. Since 2006, she has conducted ongoing field research on the Grand Canyon National Monument of Northern Arizona and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area of both northern Arizona and Southern Nevada. This research focuses on understanding the causes and nature of exchange ties within the Virgin Branch Puebloan culture, how and why social identities changed over a time, and what factors led to population movements in this area. A second area of ongoing research deals with understanding ceramic technology and use among non-sedentary hunter-gatherers, particularly those of subarctic Alaska.

Since joining the UNLV faculty in 2001, Harry has obtained more than $1.6 million in external funding, which has provided stipends and research opportunities for numerous graduate and undergraduate students. She has authored or co-authored two books and regularly publishes in peer-reviewed books and journals, which has included such venues as American Anthropologist, American Antiquity, Journal of Archaeological Science, and Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.