Media, pop, and more

Known for her incisive cultural observations mixed with fun and humor, New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum has written about The Good Wife, Mr. Robot, Girls,  and many other shows. Her best-of-2015 list included Mad Men ("existentially brilliant"), Transparent ("a humane and confident masterpiece"), Scandal ("a much better show than House of Cards"), and Fargo ("split-screens, Reaganism, and great characters").

Nussbaum will speak at Skidmore on Thursday, April 21, starting at 7 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall.  The event, sponsored by the student-run Speakers Bureau, is free and open to the public.

Liz Reisen '16, Speakers Bureau chair, says, "Journalism and media are integrated and intertwined in society" but English and media are more separate in Skidmore's curriculum. And with the launch of Skidmore's new minor in media and film studies, she says, "we wanted to facilitate a space for the two worlds to come together and explore potential collaborations."

Nussbaum's New Yorker articles have included "To Stir, With Love," noting how the stand-and-stir genre of cooking show fosters "the dream of an idyllic home kitchen," while the competitive genre tends to "glamorize workaholism."  In "Be Mine," she called her favorite rom-coms "a sharp and likable crowd . . . like friends of friends at a party you're glad you showed up for." Her "Sickness and Health" described how one hospital show "captures the cosmic horror of what nurses know: that . . . no one dies with dignity."

She also worked at New York magazine for seven years, editing the culture pages and creating the Approval Matrix, and writing both features and criticism.

Update: Emily Nussbaum was recently awarded the 2016 Pulitizer Prize for Criticism.