Elena Telles Ryan

Position
Department of History
Bio/Description

Elena Telles Ryan is a graduate student in the Department of History. Elena studies the legal dimensions of colonialism and is especially interested in understanding how Native Americans shaped their own laws and customs and those of imperial powers. She is currently working on a dissertation that examines the legal culture of the Ho-Chunk in the North American Midwest during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the spring of 2021, Elena participated in the Newberry Consortium for American Indian Studies spring workshop which focused on reading landscapes as sources. At Princeton, Elena is involved in Gender and Sexuality StudiesPrinceton American Indian and Indigenous Studies Working Group (PAIISWG), and coordinates the Colonial and Revolutionary Americas Workshop (CRAW).