PMA Professor J. Ellen Gainor has been invited as a guest speaker for Syracuse University’s Goldring Arts, Style, and Culture Journalism Program on April 23. She will discuss the history of female theatre critics, as reflected in her co-edited volume, The Routledge Anthology of Women's Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism, and also be speaking about contemporary critics who are recent winners of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.
Gainor’s Routledge Anthology of Women's Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism is one of the first of its kind to focus specifically on female theatre critics and an important intervention into the fields of Theatre and Performance Studies, Literary Studies, and Cultural History, while adding new dimensions to Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism is supported by Cornell University and aims to award excellence in writing about the theatre. Beginning in 1958, the award is given to those within the United States who have written what is considered to be exemplary pieces of dramatic and theatrical criticism within a calendar year.
“I'm honored to have been invited by Professor Eric Grode, Director of the Goldring Arts, Style, and Culture Journalism Program at Syracuse University, to speak to his graduate students on two topics related to writing theatre criticism,” Professor Gainor said. “I hope that these arts journalism students will be inspired by both this critical legacy and these current models of excellence in their field.”
Read more about Professor Gainor’s award-winning Routledge Anthology of Women’s Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism here.
Emma Alexander ’26 is a communications assistant in the Department of Performing and Media Arts.
