Dr. Shelley Scott (BA ’86) has been named Interim Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts for a nine-month term, effective October 1, 2021, and running through to June 30, 2022.
Scott currently teaches theatre history, Canadian theatre, dramatic literature and theatre theory and has been at the University of Lethbridge since 1998. She graduated from the U of L with great distinction, majoring in drama, and was awarded the Faculty of Arts & Science gold medal as well as the Charles S. Noble award for student leadership.
Scott earned her master’s and PhD from the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto and taught at the University of Guelph before returning to Lethbridge in 1998. She was Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dramatic Arts from 2008-2011. In 2013, she was promoted to professor and served a three-year term (2013-2016) as associate dean for the Faculty of Fine Arts.
“We’re extremely pleased to draw on Shelley’s talents as an instructor and administrator to fill this vital role over the next nine months,” says Dr. Erasmus Okine, provost and vice-president (academic).
Over the course of her academic career, Scott has been an active researcher and publisher, specifically studying Canadian women playwrights. She has published on playwrights such as Joan MacLeod, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Linda Griffiths in academic journals such as Modern Drama, Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Research in Canada, Resources for Feminist Research,and the British Journal of Canadian Studies.
Scott, who has directed numerous plays for the Department of Drama, has also published two books, The Violent Woman as a New Theatrical Character Type: Cases from Canadian Drama and Nightwood Theatre: A Woman's Work is Always Done. She is a member in the Canadian Association for Theatre Research and served as president from 2008-2012.
“I am excited to take on this new role for the Faculty of Fine Arts and to work with my extraordinary faculty colleagues, dedicated staff and incredible students, with a new, university-wide voice,” says Scott of her appointment.