Her teaching and research focus on everyday- and gender history of Nazism, as well as violence and sexuality. Aside from her book Gewalt im Dienstalltag: Die SS-Aufseherinnen des Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Majdanek 1942–1944 (2009), which is forthcoming in English (Workday Violence: Female Guards at Lublin-Majdanek, 1942–1944), Elissa has published several articles on the history of Nazi perpetrators and the structures, mechanisms and dynamics of violence in German concentration and extermination camps.