Dr. Clare Bratten examines “Orange is the New Black”

Clare Bratten

MTSU professor Clare Bratten peeked behind the prison bars of the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” during her Feb. 26 lecture in Room 100 of the James Union Building.

Bratten, a professor in the Department of Electronic Media Communication, presented “Orange is the New Black: How We Talk About the Show” to a room full of students, faculty and guests. The comedy-drama follows the plight of Piper Chapman, a woman who loses her comfortable New York life when she is convicted in connection with a youthful indiscretion. Plots revolve around how she adjusts to a life of prison privation and an array of quirky fellow inmates and guards.

“The talk explored whether the wildly popular series … is a soap opera-styled serial, a socially conscious critique of prison life or a continuation of a ‘Women In Prison’ genre that began in the early days of Hollywood,” Bratten said

“Orange is the New Black” has been nominated for numerous awards and won a Peabody Award in 2013. The show also won the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony and the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series.

Bratten teaches video production and media theory at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Her presentation was the latest in the MTSU’s Women’s and Gender Studies Research Series.

Thank you to MTSU News & Media Relations.