Books and Essays:
  - Indecent Secrets (2006) 
  - Intimate Enemies (1997) 
  - The Hitler Kiss (2002) 
  - "The Country for Men
      with Nerve" in Degas
      and America (1999)
  - "Dorothy Dix" in Louisiana
      Portraits (2007) 
  - "El Corazón de España" en
      Permanencia Cultural de
      España en Nueva
      Orleans (2008) 
  - "Paris in the 18th Century,"
      in Concorde: Talleyrand/
      Marshall Center (U.S.
      State Department, 2007)
 Lecture Topics 
 Biographical and
      Contact Information 

Home  |  Contact  

Christina Vella
5500 Camp St.
New Orleans, LA 70115

(504) 891-9858

vellachristina@gmail.com

Christina Vella received her Ph.D. in European and U.S. history from Tulane University in New Orleans. A professor of history for over twenty years, she now devotes most of her time to writing. She frequently serves as a consultant and writer for the U.S. Department of State, Curatorial Division. When Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of the Baroness de Pontalba was chosen for the cover of the New York Times Book Review, Vella began receiving lecture invitations which increased as the biography was selected by Publishers Weekly, the New York Times, and Times-Picayune for their "Best Books of 1997" lists. In 2003, Intimate Enemies was adapted by Thea Musgrave as the opera Pontalba. Vella's second book, The Hitler Kiss, is a memoir of the Czechoslovak resistance. Indecent Secrets, Italy's Infamous Murri Murder Affair, published by Free Press in 2006 is the history of a famous murder trial that took place in Italy in 1905. Dr. Vella is now at work on a biography of Kemal Ataturk.

Recent lecture invitations include: National Convention English-Speaking Union; Princeton University, Mellon Lecturer; George Washington Univ.; Rutgers Univ.; Queens College, CUNY; Villanova Univ.; Rosemont College; Louisiana State Univ. in Baton Rouge and Shreveport; Univ. Of New Orleans; Centenary College; Tulane Univ., Friends of the Louisiana Cabildo; Tennessee Williams Festival; Faulkner Society Symposium; Historic New Orleans Collection; Louisiana State Museum; American Biographical Assoc., McDonogh School Founders' Day, U.S. State Department Curatorial Division, National Association of State Treasurers, and many conventions. She has appeared on NPR, C-Span II, A&E, and the History Channel.

2010 Preservation Award, Foundation for Historical Louisiana