Her thesis, titled Karrikadjurren – Creating Community with an Art Centre in Indigenous Australia used archaeological and ethnographic methods to explore the ongoing significance of art-making in Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land.
[3] She was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and a Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council funded project "Picturing change: 21st Century perspectives on recent Australian rock art, especially that from the European contact period" which ran from 2008 to 2011 and was led by Professor Paul Taçon.
[4] She was also a Chief Investigator on the ARC-funded project "Wellington Range rock art in a global context" which ran 2016–2018.
[5] In 2009, she was appointed a lecturer at the Australian National University, and in 2017 she joined PERAHU as a senior research fellow.
[14][15] May's collection of filmed oral histories and other materials from her previous and ongoing research around Gunbalanya, Injalak Hill and Kakadu is archived at AIATSIS.