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Scott Magelssen (he/him/his)

Head of Theatre History and Performance Studies, Undergraduate Coordinator
Professor, Theatre History
Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor
Scott Magelssen

Contact Information

HUT 107
Office Hours: 
Mondays and Wednesdays 2-3pm

Biography

Ph. D. University of Minnestota
MA University of Minnesota
BA Augsburg College, Minneapolis

Scott Magelssen is Floyd U. Jones Family Endowed Executive Director and Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies in the UW School of Drama. He holds a PhD in Theatre History, Theory, and Dramatic Literature from the University of Minnesota. His most recent book, Performing Flight: From the Barnstormers to Space Tourism, was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2020. He co-edited a collection of essays, Enveloping Worlds: Toward a Discourse of Immersive Performance with E. B. Hunter (Washington University in St. Louis), which was published by University of Michigan Press in 2025. His current book project, Performing Prehistory: Dinosaur Encounters and Repertoires of Racial Anxiety, is about popular representations of dinosaurs and cavemen starting in the nineteenth century. Scott is the author of Simming: Participatory Performance and the Making of Meaning (2014) and Living History Museums (2007), and co-editor of Enacting History (2011), Theatre Historiography: Critical Interventions (2010), and Querying Difference in Theatre History (2007). 

Research & Creative Work

Representative Research

Research Advised: Graduate Dissertations

Courses Taught

Additional Courses

Spring 2017 - Museum 558, Museum Theatre and Performance

Resources & Related Links

Affiliations

Professional Affiliations: 
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR); Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC); American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS); Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE); International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTAL)

News & Press

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