Haviland's current major research project, funded by NSF grant #0935407, ("Acquisition of Zinacantec Family Homesign in the Only Second Generation Speaker"), administered by UCSD's Center for Research on Language, involves documentation and analysis of a first generation spontaneous sign language, developed by three profoundly deaf siblings in Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico, and their family members, most crucially focused in the first year on a two-year-old child growing up bilingual in Tzotzil [Mayan] and sign.

Research among speakers of Amuzgo (Otomanguean) continues in San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca, Mexico, and Oceanside, California.

Ongoing work in Zinacantán, Chiapas, involves a collection of essays on long-term linguistic anthropological fieldwork, tentatively entitled "Intimate Language."

Work continues on the changing nature of Guugu Yimithirr language at the Hopevale Aboriginal community in north Queensland, Australia, and a project to repatriate field materials to that community.