Micki McElya is a professor of history at the University of Connecticut. In 2017, her book, “The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It is a luminous investigation of how policies and practices at Arlington have mirrored the nation’s fierce battles over race, politics, honor, and loyalty. Prof. McElya graduated Bryn Mar College in 1994 and received a PhD from New York University in 2003. Before joining the faculty at UConn, she was an assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Alabama. She is currently working on a book entitled, “No More Miss America! How Protesting the 1968 Pageant Changed a Nation.”