The Mesoamerican Laboratory is used for research and analysis associated with two externally funded projects at CSU that fall under the umbrella of the Legacies of Resilience research program. The first, the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin Archaeological project (LORE-LPB), seeks to explore social and environmental factors that led to the formation of the Late Postclassic (A.D. 1000-1520) Purépecha or Tarascan Empire. Funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the National Geographic Society, and private donors, the LORE-LPB project involves remote sensing coupled with on the ground survey and excavation in Mexico.

The second project, New Perspectives on Mosquitia Prehistory, Honduras, is aimed at elucidating the long-term record of human/environment interaction in one of the last examples of multi-level tropical rainforest left in the Americas. Funded by private donors the Mosquitia project involves both remote sensing and on the ground field survey.