Alisa Solomon

Professor & Director, Arts Concentration, M.A. Program

Email: as646@columbia.edu

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. immigration policy, LGTB issues, electoral politics, and women’s sports

Alisa Solomon directs the Arts & Culture concentration in the M.A. program, teaching its core seminar as well as an array of M.S. courses; among them, Ethics, Reporting, Criticism workshop. She began her journalism career in the early 1980s as a theater critic at the Village Voice and, while continuing in that role in her 21 years on staff at the Voice, also covered such areas as U.S. immigration policy, LGTB issues, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, electoral politics, and women’s sports. Nowadays, she contributes regularly to The Nation, covering live performance and scripted TV. As a freelancer, she has contributed to magazines, newspapers, and radio stations ranging from Glamour and Poz to the Guardian, New York Times and WNYC.

Trained academically in theater history and dramatic literature, Alisa stays connected to the field, contributing to journals like The Drama Review and America Theater. Her books include “Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender” (winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism) and “Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’” (winner of the Kurt Weill Prize, the Jewish Journal Prize, and the Theatre Library Association’s George Freedley Memorial Award). Alisa also has an arts practice as a dramaturg. Most recently, she has been working with Anna Deavere Smith on her Pipeline to Prison Project.