Ryan Hayes

Ryan is a first-year graduate student researching borderlands history, Colorado history, and intellectual history under Dr. Orsi.

He graduated in 2025 from Colorado Mesa University with a B.A in History and a Minor in Public History. His senior thesis “Little Byrons,” poetic agitation in the American Anti-Slavery Movement,  focused on poetry as a primary locus of the American Anti-Slavery movement, and the ways in which women and men agitated against slavery poetically.

Currently Ryan is researching the development of Medical Societies in Colorado, and Catholic Political Agitation.  In his free time Ryan enjoys reading, painting, and riding his bike.