Monique Kil was born and raised in the Netherlands. She graduated magna cum laude from University College Roosevelt, obtaining a B.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences (with an interdepartmental major in history, anthropology and sociology, and a minor in rhetoric and argumentation). For her undergraduate honors thesis, she uncovered what kind of emancipation issues were present in the Netherlands in the late 1980s and early 1990s, through the lens of an emancipation program broadcasted on the Dutch public radio at the time.
As a graduate student at Columbia and LSE, Monique broadened her knowledge in her fields of interests, which include cultural history, gender studies, and transatlantic relations. She also developed an interest in the Cold War period, consumerism, and public diplomacy. She combined these interests in her dual degree dissertation titled "Libelle and Margriet Lead the Way: Turning Dutch Women into Mrs. Consumer-Citizens in the Early Years of the Cold War.'' Monique was also awarded the Cold War Archives Research Fellowship (2016-2017). As part of this fellowship, she conducted archival research at the Open Society Archives in Budapest and the Hoover Institution Archives in Stanford, and presented her results at conferences in Budapest and New York.
After graduating from the program, Monique was selected for a competitive trainee program with the Dutch government. She has since worked as a policy officer for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
