About Victoria
Courtesy of Jimo Salako
Victoria Phillips is the author of Martha Graham’s Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy, which explores the international political life of Martha Graham to promote the United States on in over thirty nations for every presidential administration from Dwight D. Eisenhower through George H.W. Bush.
Graham famously denied that her work was political, yet government documents, oral histories, personal papers, and even the dances themselves demonstrate her promotion of freedom and the constitutional principles of the United States. At present, Phillips has begun her work on Dr. Eleanor Lansing Dulles, the sister of John Foster, Secretary of State under Eisenhower, and Allen, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency through 1961. Phillips is writing about Lansing Dulles’ work in Berlin between 1952 and 1961 as an economic and cultural diplomat, and spymaster.
Dr. Victoria Phillips is a Visiting Fellow and Guest Teacher in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics (LSE), where she specializes in Cold War history and cultural diplomacy. She manages the History, Culture and Diplomacy project, and runs the Cold War Archival Research project (CWAR), which is a joint program between LSE, Columbia
University, and West Point Military Academy. Between 2013 and 2020, she was a Lecturer in History at the European Institute and Department of History at Columbia University, Associated Faculty at the Harriman Institute, and faculty director of (CWAR).
Victoria Phillips’ teaching interests include Cold War cultural history, both as a full-year and one-semester course that explores the way in which the United States government and private institutions used books, film, television, radio, sports, food, stamps, and many other forms to project and promote American ideology internationally. In addition, she teaches a course on women in the Cold War, “Women as Cold War Weapons,” as well as a course on women and the conservative tradition in the global post-World War II twentieth century.
Phillips received her BA, MBA and PhD from Columbia University, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in History and Performance Studies from New York University. Her articles have appeared in such varied publications as the New York Times, Dance Chronicle, Ballet News, American Communist History, UC Berkeley’s Center for Right-Wing Studies, and Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. She has curated several public exhibitions in the United States and in Europe. Phillips has lectured at universities, colleges, high schools, and international institutes.
At present, she serves on the boards of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the European Institute at Columbia University, British Dance History Scholars, and the Historic Dance Theatre. She serves as chair of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Task Force on
Archival Digital Resources. She is on the editorial boards of American Communist History and Dance Chronicle. Her primary research is held at the Library of Congress as the Victoria Phillips Collection.
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