Elly is the Deputy Director (Academic and Student Engagement) of the ANU Indonesia Institute. She heads the Indonesian Language program at ANU, convenes the Year in Asia program and is the treasurer of the Indonesia Council, Australia peak body for Indonesian studies.

Elly’s research focuses on contemporary and historical art, design and cultural practices in Southeast Asia, and especially in Indonesia. She is interested in the intersection between social change, politics and art practice and her doctoral research focused on participatory practices and ideologies in Indonesian art.

Elly is the author of Artists and the People: Ideologies of Indonesian Art (2022) NUS Press, (Indonesian translation Seniman dan Masyarakyat: Ideologi-Ideologi Seni Rupa di Indonesia, Gang Kabel Press, 2024) and co-author and co-editor (with Virginia Hooker and Caroline Turner) of Living Art: Indonesian Artists Engage Politics, Society and History (2023) ANU Press.