Mia Finnan ’28, an American studies major from Brookline, Massachusetts, wasn’t entirely sure what subject she wanted to pursue when she got to college. Her personal interests were clear, though.  

“I’ve always been really interested in and passionate about the arts. Music, film, TV, and theater have always been the creative drive in my life and what I like to do with my free time,” she says.  

Those interests have been coupled with a fascination with history.  

“I feel a need, when I really love a song, to learn everything I can about the process of how it was written and the intended meaning behind the lyrics,” she said. “When I listen to artists I’m thinking about what was going on with them at the time and their impact.”  

For Mia, love of a creative work has always prompted further research into its history.  

“I don’t feel like I can fully appreciate it until I fully understand who made it and why,” she explained. 

Finding a major that combined this love for media and learning about history into one academic focus was her goal when she arrived at Skidmore.  

As she put it, “Skidmore seemed like the type of place where I would have a lot of opportunities to take different sorts of classes and pursue different things and really figure out what I wanted to do.” 

Mia’s love for pop culture led to her discovery of the American Studies Department. Based on her love for film (favorites being “The Graduate” and “Lost in Translation”), she enrolled in Professor Daniel Nathan’s Representations of the American Past in Film course. 

 “I had never taken a film class before,” she said. “Plus, it seemed to be a film history class, and I was like, ‘Great, that's totally me!’ I don’t think I even realized when I was signing up for it that it was an American studies class.”  

The course allowed for personal interests to become academic pursuits, and, after realizing how much the course aligned with her interests, she decided to major in American studies. “I realized that it was completely my niche,” she says, the discipline providing the mix of historical and cultural study that she had been looking for.  

In addition to the film course, Mia has also taken an introductory course, called the Godfather and American Culture, and a course on Methods and Approaches to American studies, a requirement for the major.   

The Pink Palace 

Her desire to understand the social history behind events has led to new discoveries beyond the classroom.  

One recent interest was Moore Hall, affectionally known by generations of Skidmore students as the Pink Palace for its pink exterior. Built in 1957, the six-story residence hall was located on Union Avenue in downtown Saratoga Springs on Skidmore’s old campus. Some sources say the facade was never intended to be pink, and the stone was supposed to fade over time into a more subdued beige. It never faded. 

Although it was about a mile and a half from the current campus, Skidmore continued to use the dormitory until 2006. The building’s sale prompted a lot of nostalgia by Skidmore alumni and a vibrant discussion in Saratoga Springs over whether the blockish salmon structure could or should be repurposed. Ultimately, it was torn down in 2016 and replaced by condos.  

“I found pictures and a Facebook group of Skidmore alumni sharing their memories of the Pink Palace. I was just reading all these responses and people were saying ‘I can’t imagine a Skidmore where people don’t know what the Pink Palace is.’”  

She was able to share the story of the Pink Palace with her friends, which eventually led to the serendipitous acquisition of a pink chunk of the former dorm.  

“It's on my dorm room desk now,” she says, “just because a few months ago I went down a rabbit hole. I felt really excited because it was like ‘Wow! Someone is just as excited about this as me.’” 

Her American studies courses have nurtured the passions that have led her to exciting discoveries like the Pink Palace and an ever-increasing sense of connection to Skidmore. Receiving a piece of the Palace, she says, “was a moment that was really representative of my experience at Skidmore overall, where my interests are recognized and nurtured and celebrated in a way that’s really rewarding and fulfilling for me. It makes me excited for what’s to come. It made me feel connected to my own school.”