She enrolled in the University of Berlin studying German Culture and Language[3] and while she was in Europe took the opportunity to visit many museums, seeing for the first time archeological objects from South America.

Dussán enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Colombia in 1940,[3] but fascinated by archeology attended lectures offered by Paul Rivet.

[1] Besides the difficulty of the physical work, Dussán had to face criticism from local priests and other members of society, who felt that her dress and behavior were inappropriate for a woman.

[3] One particularly important ritual they documented was a practice of secondary burial among the Yuko or Yukpa people who lived in the northeastern part of the Cesar Department.

[2] Working on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Dussán who was pregnant again, collected materials from the local indigenous people on their mythology, socialization processes, and traditions.

Using field questionnaires designed and adapted from Margaret Mead's methodology, she made pioneering studies on gender relations and parenting traditions in Taganga.

The program allowed them to participate in archaeological digs along the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and conduct medical anthropological studies, which were insightful for their findings on Atánquez.

[1] These organizations allowed exploration to continue on the Pacific coast, in an area ranging from Panama's Darién Province to the Colombia–Ecuador border.

El Hermanito's doomsday predictions affected both the customs and local economy, causing both indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations to sell off their belongings or sacrifice them into the river, and kill off their livestock.

Simultaneously, as a Guggenheim Fellow, she worked on a project sponsored by Harvard University and the Colombian National Institute of Nutrition to evaluate the effects of malnutrition on mental development in Colombia.

[2] Returning to Colombia, she began work as a co-producer of an audiovisual media project on Colombian culture created by the Ministry of Education.

[1][2] Dussán was one of the founders and a charter member of the Academy of Sciences of the Third World, created in 1983 to promote scholarship and stimulus to develop scientific study.

The Ministry of Culture in conjunction with the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences bestowed upon her the Lifetime Achievement prize for her scientific body of work in 2002.

[7][6] She occupied Chair 15 of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences until 2008, when she was granted the status Honorary Academic.