Elena Ryan studies the early American republic and the often divergent understandings of belonging and unbelonging held by the young government and its inhabitants. Elena's past projects have included a study of violence as intentional political participation prior to the Civil War. More recently, she has worked to investigate the Washington administration's engagements with the Western Confederation of Indians in contrast with its actions against Pennsylvania's Whiskey rebels. Elena is currently collaborating on a project digitizing and analyzing a collection of Civil War letters.

After earning an undergraduate degree in computer science, Elena strives to combine her passions for software development and history to create compelling tools for digitization and education.