
Executive Director
Professor, Theatre History
Floyd U. Jones Family Endowed Chair
Fields of Interest
Biography
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).
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Selected Research
- “Dinosaurs, Race, and the Staging of Civilization: Lileana Blain-Cruz’s revival of The Skin of Our Teeth at Lincoln Center.” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), Madison, 2024.
- Scott Magelssen. “Actors as Surrogate Sufferers? Toward a Model for Well-Being in Acting Training.” Humanities and Human Flourishing Project. Oxford University Press, 2023.
- “It all Comes Round Again: Immersive 1950s Simulations as Reminiscence Therapy.” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), Cleveland, 2022.
- Scott Magelssen. “Dinosaurs, Racial Anxiety, and Curatorial Intervention: Whiteness and Performative Historiography in the Museum.” Special Issue on Theatre Historiography, ed. Michal Kobialka. Pamietnik Teatralny 70.4 (2022).
- “The Character of Nostalgia: Meaning, Yearning, and Simulations of the Recent Past.” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), Chicago, 2020.
- Performing Flight: From the Barnstormers to Space Tourism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020.
- “Performance, Flight, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum,” American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR). Arlington, 2019.
- “Spinning in Zero G: Playing Astronaut as Touristic Experience …and Theatre Research,” Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), Milwaukee, 2018.
- Scott Magelssen and Shelby Lunderman. “Tactical Slowness: Fomenting a Culture of Mental Health in the Academy.” Reversing the Cult of Speed in Higher Education: The Slow Movement in the Arts and Humanities. Ed. Jonathan Chambers and Stephannie Gearhart (Routledge, 2018).
- “Performing the American Astronaut: From Fighter Pilot to Cold Warrior.” Innovation Series. University of Houston. March, 2017.
- Axel Andersson and Scott Magelssen, “Performing a Viking History of America: The 1893 Voyage and Display of a Viking Longship at the Columbus Quadricentennial.” Theatre Journal 69.2 (June 2017), pp. 175-195.
- Scott Magelssen, “Our Academic Discipline is Making Us Sicker.” Special Section: ASTR’s 60th Anniversary. Theatre Survey 57.3 (September, 2016) 389-394.
- Scott Magelssen, “White-Skinned Gods: Thor Heyerdahl, The Kon-Tiki Museum, and the Racial Theory of Polynesian Origins.” TDR: The Drama Review 60.1 [T229] (Winter, 2016).
- “Living History Museums: The Power and Perils of Performing History,” a lecture delivered at the Arts Club of Chicago, in conjunction with the Annie Smith exhibition. January, 2015
- Scott Magelssen. Simming: Participatory Performance and the Making of Meaning. U of Michigan Press, 2014.
- Scott Magelssen and Rhona Justice-Malloy, editors. Enacting History. U of Alabama Press, 2011.
- Scott Magelssen and Henry Bial, editors. Theater Historiography: Critical Interventions. U of Michigan Press, 2010.
- Scott Magelssen. Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance. Scarecrow, 2007.
- Scott Magelssen and Ann Haugo, editors. Querying Difference in Theatre History. Cambridge Scholars, 2007.
Research Advised
- Merhi, Mona. Space Maneuverings in Post-Uprising Syrian Performances: Scarring Space and Language. 2023. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Heiner, Cate. Affective Ambiguity: The Specifics of Staging Trauma and Negotiating Empathy. 2023. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Salazar, Carlos. The Memory of the Islands: Cultural Negotiations and their Remains in (Post)Colonial Costa Rica. 2021. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Cortes Viharo, Monica. Trauma Drama: The Translocal Legibility of Trauma and Utopia in Contemporary Feminist Performance. 2021. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Lunderman, Shelby. Cruel and Unusual Performance: (Re)producing Capital Punishment on the U.S. Stage. 2020. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Goodson, Christopher. Performing Precarity: Experimental Theater, Video, and Live Political Art with Undocumented Immigrants. 2017. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Finque, Susan. Re-story(y)ing Theatre History in the Americas: Professional Players and the Callao Contract of 1599. 2017. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Marsh, Sarah. Never Mere Observation: Performance, Technology, and the Act of Looking. 2017. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Eric Villiers, “Staging Queer, Queer(ing) Curation: Queer Art, Queer Performativity, and Queer Curatorial Practices in Art Museums,” expected 2024.
- Mackenzie Bounds, “Technophobic Drama: America’s Stages Fearing Machines,” expected 2024.
- Wighs, Robert. Alaska Native Theatre: Cultural Resurgence and Reception in Post-Statehood Alaska. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. In progress.
- Eckard, Jason. Tenth and Eleventh Century Liturgical Drama and the Rise of the Latin Christian Church. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. In progress.
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Autumn 2025
Spring 2025
Winter 2025
Autumn 2024
Spring 2024
Winter 2024
Autumn 2023
Spring 2023
Winter 2023
Autumn 2022
Winter 2022
Additional CoursesSpring 2017 - Museum 558, Museum Theatre and Performance
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Professional AffiliationsAmerican 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)