New York Times Columnist Frank Rich to Speak

Posted on Feb. 27, 2006

Frank Rich, op-ed columnist and former theater critic at The New York Times, will be on campus to discuss art, culture and politics on March 6 as a Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Rich’s weekly essays on the intersection of culture and politics helped inaugurate the expanded opinion pages that the Times introduced in its Sunday Week in Review section in April 2005. He also is senior adviser to the newspaper’s culture editor.

Rich previously was front page columnist for the Times’ Sunday Arts & Leisure section from 2003 to 2005.

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Rich earned a bachelor’s degree in American history and literature at Harvard, where he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.

Before joining the Times, Rich was a film and television critic at Time magazine, a film critic for the New York Post and a film critic and senior editor of New Times magazine.

He has been at the Times since 1980, when he was named chief theater critic. In 1994, he became an op-ed columnist, and in 1999, he became the first Times columnist to write a regular double-length column for the op-ed page.

From 1999-2003, Rich also was a senior writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has written about culture and politics for many other publications. Random House published Rich’s childhood memoir, Ghost Light, in 2000. Storyline Entertainment has acquired the film rights. Currently, Rich is writing a nonfiction book about what he calls “our post-9/11 fictions.”

The Frey Foundation Professorship was established in 1989 to bring to campus distinguished leaders from a variety of fields, including government, public policy and the arts. Edward J. and Frances Frey of Grand Rapids, Mich., established the foundation in 1974. Their son, David Gardner Frey ’64, chairs the foundation.

The free public lecture at 7 p.m. will be in Hill Hall auditorium, with a reception afterward in the Ackland Art Museum. No tickets are required.

Limited parking will be available in the Swain visitor’s lot off Cameron Avenue and in some other campus lots after 5 p.m; parking will also be available in town pay lots on Rosemary Street.

For more information on the lecture, call (919) 843-6339 or visit the College of Arts and Sciences Web site.

---