Britta Schilling grew up in the United States, where she studied as an undergraduate at Brown University and Rutgers University. She obtained her BA with highest honors with a joint concentration in History and Art History. From 2003 until 2015, she studied and worked in the United Kingdom, where she obtained her MPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford (University College and St Antony’s College). In 2012, she was awarded a three-year postdoctoral position as Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge (Wolfson College).

In 2008-9, Schilling was College and Departmental Lecturer in History at Trinity College, University of Oxford. She has also taught at the University of Cambridge, University College London and the University of Oxford Department of Continuing Education.

Schilling also has career experience outside of academe, having worked in the London Development Agency press and media department in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics and as a freelance copy editor. She served as admissions and events coordinator as well as undergraduate administrator in the History department at University College London.