Having worked in China, Spain, the UK and currently in the Middle East Goffriller has developed "a profoundly supra-national outlook, regarding frontiers, be they geographical or political, as inherently permeable phenomena that may or may not elicit transformative processes in the self-definition of local populations. His doctoral research focused on "fortifications as delineators of spatial identities" from which his current involvement in the study of the tribal landscapes of Oman and the trade networks of the Western Indian Ocean was "a natural progression."