Elsa Holahan is a rising senior at Yale University studying American Studies. She is a Mellon Mays and Bouchet Research Fellow whose research considers the rise of digital policing and street surveillance in her hometown of New Haven, Connecticut.
Holahan also studies social policy as a Director’s Fellow with the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and she is particularly interested in decarceral and abolitionist policies. Holahan’s scholarship is greatly informed by her experiences as a community organizer and prison justice advocate. Alongside a New Haven public school teacher, Holahan organized a study group on the writings of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, bringing together students and community members to consider abolitionist futures for the city of New Haven.
Outside of her coursework and research, Holahan serves as an Academic Strategies Mentor with the Yale Prison Education Initiative, facilitating study halls and offering individualized academic support to incarcerated students. Additionally, Holahan serves as a Co-chair on the New Haven Democratic Town Committee where she nominates candidates for higher office and spearheads voter engagement initiatives.
Holahan will work alongside MacCrate Research Chair in the Legal Profession Robert L. Nelson on the After the JD Project.