[1] Her research focuses on the relationship between tourism, sustainable development and poverty reduction, and she has conducted fieldwork on these issues in Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, the Maldives and in Southern Africa.

[2][3][4][5][6][7] She is also very interested in gender and development, sustainable livelihood options for small island states, and in theories of empowerment for marginalised peoples.

[8][9][10][11] After a 1995 PhD titled 'A quiet revolution: strategies for the empowerment and development of rural women in the Solomon Islands' at Massey University,[12] Scheyvens joined the staff, rising to full professor.

[27] She is the recipient of the prestigious James Cook Fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand which funds her to undertake her own research in 2021 and 2022.

[28] Notable doctoral students of Scheyvens' include Trisia Farrelly, professor of social anthropology at Massey.