He completed his graduate and doctoral work in history at Brown University, receiving a Master of Arts in 1993 and a Ph.D. in 1998.

A River and Its City won the 2004 Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize, awarded annually "to the publication that has made the most significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes of North America.

Through archival research and oral history interviews, Kelman documents how National Park Service employees, local landowners, and descendants of victims of the Sand Creek massacre worked together to develop an appropriate memorial for the historic site.

[7][8][9][10][11] The title of the work was derived from Kelman's own realization that the descendants' claim for the location of the massacre, rather than himself, were correct.

[12] During and after Hurricane Katrina, Kelman wrote articles describing New Orleans' environmental history for such popular media outlets as The Nation,[13] Slate,[14] and The Christian Science Monitor.