Laura Quinton

I am the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies and a Lecturer in Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard. I came to Harvard in 2022 as a Lecturer in History & Literature, and I continue to be affiliated with Hist & Lit.

My first book, Ballet Imperial: Dance and the New British Empire, is under contract with Harvard University Press. The book tells the story of how ballet, once a staple of British popular entertainment, became an elite national art and global “soft power” tool over the course of the twentieth century. Along the way, I uncover how the Arts Council of Great Britain, BBC Television, and the British Council worked to spread ballet at home and abroad – and how dance artists’ evolving creativity could test these sponsors’ goals. Fellowships from the Harvard Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities, NYU Center for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation/Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), and the Alumnae Association of Barnard College have supported my research.

A former dancer, I received my PhD in History from New York University in 2021. From 2021-2022, I was a Resident Fellow at NYU's Center for Ballet and the Arts and a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the NYU College Core Curriculum. My writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Historical Journal, and Twentieth Century British History, among other venues. I have collaborated with artists and arts organizations on public lectures and events, including most recently with Boston Ballet.

At Harvard and NYU, I have designed and taught courses that invite students to analyze a wide range of arts and cultural forms in order to grapple with larger questions and global histories of politics, power, and identity. My new Fall 2025 seminar – Boston Goes Dancing – on dance in the Boston area, past and present, received a Curricular Innovation Award from the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship. Professor David Levine and I are currently developing an Arts & Humanities Introductory Course – And The Crowd Goes Wild – on audiences and spectatorship.