Professor Elgert is particularly interested in the environment-development nexus, examining how politics shapes global environmental policy that can have profound impacts on local livelihoods. She has worked in a UNESCO Man and Biosphere Site in the Interior Atlantic Forest (Paraguay), where she helped facilitate the emergence of local and regional governance institutions. She has researched environmental politics in the context of soy production in South America and has also worked in teams involved in landscape and land-use modeling. Up-and-coming research will involve developing a social science-based, policy-relevant approach to developing and implementing indicators of sustainable development.