Kelsey Jacobson

Kelsey Jacobson is an Assistant Professor in the DAN School of Drama and Music at Queen's University, serving as Drama Co-Coordinator and Student Liaison for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She co-founded the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research and was awarded the Frank Knox Teaching Excellence Award in 2021.

Her educational background includes a PhD from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies and an MA from Queen Mary, University of London, where she also worked as a Junior Researcher at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Dr. Jacobson's research focuses on how audiences impact, receive, and create meaning through performance, utilizing affect theory and qualitative methodologies. Her work addresses equity in audience access and applied theatre practices, examining emotional and communal dimensions of spectatorship in contemporary contexts.

Her publications trend toward audience-centered inquiry, with the 2023 monograph 'Real-ish' analyzing realness production in performance and the 2020 co-edited collection exploring youth citizenry through community-engaged research, reflecting interdisciplinary approaches to audience experience.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Frank Knox Award for Teaching Excellence (2021)

She secures major research funding including:

• SSHRC grant for 'Being Together' (2021-2023) on copresence in performance
• SSHRC grant for 'Gatherings' (2019-2023) on performance oral histories
• British Academy grant (2023-2024) studying pandemic impacts on G7 performing arts

She actively supervises graduate students and presents research at international conferences including CATR and ASTR.

As co-founding director of the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research, she leads interdisciplinary investigations into live performance audience dynamics and meaning-making processes.