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.
McElya received her Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Bryn Mawr College and her Ph.D. from New York University in 2003.
[2] During her tenure, she published a book titled Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century America through the Harvard University Press.
[3] Clinging to Mammy also earned her a place on the 2007 Myers Center Outstanding Book Awards Advancing Human Rights.
[2] She published her second book titled The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery through the Harvard University Press, which earned her a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction nomination.