Dr. Kellen Heniford is a historian who believes that understanding the past helps us build a better future.

Kellen is presently serving as a Visiting Scholar at Wesleyan University, where she is affiliated with the Department of History and working on a project with the Center for the Study of Guns and Society to catalog and contextualize historical weapons regulations across the country. At the same time, Kellen is researching and writing about key issues at the nexus of Second Amendment litigation and American history, with several law review articles forthcoming or in development. Since shifting her focus to Second Amendment research and writing in 2023, Kellen’s publications have been cited by parties before state and federal appellate courts as well as in amicus briefs at the state and federal level—including in multiple Supreme Court cases.

A graduate of Columbia University’s PhD program in History, Kellen has worked and studied at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Penn State University. She is also currently leading a long-term project through the National Park Service to bring Black history to the forefront at Delaware’s First State National Historical Park.