Victoria W. Wolcott

Victoria W. Wolcott is a Professor of History at the University at Buffalo, College of Arts and Sciences. She serves as Director of the Gender Institute and specializes in 20th-century U.S. History, African American History, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Urban History. Her research explores civil rights movements, utopianism, and the intersection of race, class, and gender in urban contexts.

• Education: PhD from the University of Michigan (1995); BA from New York University (1989, magna cum laude).
• Affiliations: Gender Institute, University at Buffalo.

Her current research focuses on Black pacifist athlete Eroseanna Robinson and projects like The Embodied Resistance of Eroseanna Robinson: Athleticism and Activism in the Cold War Era. She has published extensively on topics ranging from civil rights activism to segregated recreational spaces in cities like Detroit and Buffalo.

Key awards include the Elise M. Boulding Prize (2023) and New Deal Book Award (2023) for Living in the Future: Utopianism and the Long Civil Rights Movement. She co-leads the Mellon Grant-funded Communities of Care project (2023–2026).

• Teaching: Courses include HIS 162: U.S. History II, HIS 379: African American History, and HIS 419: Race and the American City.
• Labs/Teams: Leads the Gender Institute and collaborates on interdisciplinary projects.