Research & Scholarship

Research & Scholarship

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Youth Fellow, Oral Histories

Ctr. for Innovations in Community Safety  | Washington, DC | 

A Georgetown University Humanities Council-funded fellowship examining how gun violence survivors construct narrative meaning from traumatic experiences. Using oral history methodology, I analyzed interview transcripts to identify patterns in survivor testimony and served as director of the mini-documentary Nex Gen Narratives, developed with Cassandra Ramdath, Joseph Green, and Roscoe Atchinson. The project honors survivor experiences while connecting research with public engagement and contributes to scholarship on memory and community-based approaches to violence prevention.

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Public History Research Intern

Mapping Segregation D.C. | Washington, DC |

A digital humanities initiative documenting the legacy of racially restrictive covenants in Washington, D.C. property records. As a public history intern, I have conducted archival analysis of 400+ deeds, extracting covenant language for integration with geospatial data. Building on this work, I wrote a research paper showing how housing discrimination in D.C. persisted beyond the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision which prevented the legal enforcement of covenants.

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Student Advisory Council Member

Gilder Lehrman Institute | New York, NY|

Multi-year engagement. First as a high school Student Advisory Council member and now as an Undergraduate Advisory Council member, I provide feedback on curriculum development and program design, helping shape how students engage with American history. As a 9th grader, I transcribed primary source documents to expand educational accessibility.

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Opinion Columnist

Opinion Columnist | St. Albans News

Through regular writing, I connected historical analysis to contemporary policy debates, exploring how the lessons of the past can inform the way we understand issues facing society today. My columns examined how historical precedent shapes current questions and the continued relevance of historical inquiry in civic life.

Research & Writings

Elias, Z. “Law Changed, Discrimination Stayed: Racial Covenants Post-1948 D.C.“

Research examining how racially restrictive covenants persisted in Washington, D.C. property transactions after the 1948 Supreme Court ruling in Shelley v. Kraemer, revealing mechanisms of structural discrimination that endured beyond legal prohibition.

Elias, Z. History & Civic Columns. St. Albans News

Regular opinion writing connecting historical analysis to contemporary policy debates.

Elias, Z. “Forgotten Warriors: WW2 African Soldiers.”

A 10,000-word historical analysis arguing that African colonial soldiers in World War II were recruited through coercion and economic necessity, faced systemic discrimination during service, and were systematically denied fair recognition and compensation after demobilization—revealing how dominant historical narratives marginalize the contributions of colonized soldiers.

Elias, Z. “From the Shadows into the Light: John Moss and the Passage of the Freedom of Information Act.” Honors Thesis, Department of History Honors Program, St. Albans School, March 2026.

An honors thesis examining the passage of the Freedom of Information Act and Congressman John Moss’s decades-long effort to establish greater government transparency during the Cold War. The research explores the constitutional tensions between executive secrecy, congressional oversight, and the public’s right to access government information. It also examines how access to records shapes what can be documented and preserved in the historical record.

Elias, Z. “Unsung Warriors.” Research Blog

Documenting research on African colonial soldiers in World War II, exploring underrepresented military histories.
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