The central goal of Salma Elmallah's research is to both expand and concretize our understanding of the socio-technical transformations needed to realize just decarbonization transitions, or efforts to remake a built environment with lower carbon emissions, across urban and rural spaces. Her research investigates three interrelated questions: (1) how scalar politics, systems of knowledge production, and situated histories shape the implementation of energy transitions; (2) where, for whom, and why energy infrastructure investments occur; and (3) how energy policies are experienced in day-to-day life. She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, including interviews, surveys, geospatial analysis, and archival methods, and her work is grounded primarily in California, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.