Elizabeth L. Block in Conversation with William Roka

On Wednesday, January 22nd at 6:30pm, Elizabeth L. Block, art and cultural historian, and Senior Editor in the Publications and Editorial Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, visits to discuss her new book, Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing, with Village Preservation's Director of Programming, William Roka. (This event is co-sponsored by The Salmagundi Club, Village Preservation, Victorian Society NY, the Merchant's House Museum and the Coffee House Club.)

Elizabeth L. Block's book, Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing (MIT Press), is available now, and has been featured in The New Yorker, Forbes, Hyperallergic, Town & Country, The New York Post, and more. Her book Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion (2021) also published by MIT Press, won the Victorian Society in America book award 2022, and was shortlisted for the Association of Dress Historians 2022 Book of the Year. The book was reviewed widely in academic journals in the fields of fashion history, American history, art history, and business history. Her articles appear in Town & Country digital, Slate, The Magazine Antiques, American Art, and Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide. She provides interviews to BBC, The Guardian, WWD, and multiple podcasts, including Dressed and The Gilded Gentleman. She earned her PhD in art history at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, with a focus on 19th-century American painting. She also holds an MA in American Studies from Columbia University, and a BA in English from The George Washington University. In 2023–24, she received fellowships at the American Antiquarian Society, Winterthur Museum and Gardens, and for the Attingham Summer School.

William Roka is the Director of Programs at Village Preservation. He is also an independent historian and writer. His research has focused on the history of travel and ocean liners in the early 20th century and has presented at conferences in the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, and across the United States. Additionally, he was the historian and public programs manager at the South Street Seaport Museum from 2016-2018 and worked at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, from 2018-2021, as a program coordinator on their Hamilton Education Program and as the host of the highly successful digital book talk program Book Breaks. He studied history at University College London and international relations at King's College London.

Host or Publisher Coffee House Club