Research and Teaching
BA Community Drama, LIPA 2014
MA Culture and Difference, Durham University 2015
PHD Applied Theatre, University of Leeds 2019
PG Cert, Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: Theatre and Performing Arts, Rose Bruford, 2022
Fellowship, Advance HE (FHEA)
I lead and teach across a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules at the Liverpool Institute for Performing arts as a lecturer in Applied Theatre and Community Drama, and have worked as a researcher on a number of arts and research projects. I also regularly teach and supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds
My PhD, 'Applied Theatre, Crossing the Borders Between Practice and Context'. looked to untangle the complex relationships between applied theatre practices and their contexts, and works with applied theatre with refugees and context of migration and austerity, alongside cultural theory.
Currently:
Lecturer in Applied Theatre and Community Drama at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (2020+)
External Examiner for Acting FD and Acting BA at University Centre Leeds
Hover below for more:
Publications:
McKay, S. (2023) Applied Theatre Training: Theatre for Democracy and Knowledge Exchange. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training.
McKay, S. (2019) Dislocating Applied Theatre: Crossing the Borders between Practice and Context. PhD thesis, University of Leeds.
McKay, S. & Bradley, J. (2016). How does arts practice engage with narratives of migration from refugees? Lessons from ‘utopia’. Arts and Communities, Special Edition Arts, Activism and Human Rights, 8(1-2), pp.31-46.
Conferences and Seminars (Selected):
Conference presentation: ‘Attending to The Wound; Strategies of Representation’. TAPRA 2023, The University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. (August 2023).
Conference presentation: ‘Applied Theatre Training: Transgressing Boundaries through Knowledge Exchange’. TAPRA 2022, The University of Colchester, Colchester, UK. (September 2022).
Invited research seminar: ‘Collaborative Ethnography’. School of Performance and Cultural Industries Research Methodologies Seminar, University of Leeds, UK. (November 2019).
(With Fran Wyburn) Conference workshop: ‘Migration and Settlement’. Connected Communities Conference, Co-creating Cities and Communities, Bristol, UK. (July 2017).
Invited colloquium presentation: ‘Radical Self-Sabotage’. Participation: A Pause for Thought, University of Leeds, UK. (May 2017).
(With Jessica Bradley) Invited research seminar: ‘How does arts practice engage with narratives of migration from refugees and asylum seekers? Lessons from ‘utopia’’. Performance and Cultural Industries Postgraduate Research Seminar, University of Leeds, UK. (May 2017).
Symposium presentation: ‘Welcome in Utopia: Representation and Welcome’. TaPRA PGR annual symposium, ‘Space For/Places In’, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. (February 2017).
Conference presentation: ‘Welcome: Utopian Methodologies and Epistemologies’. Utopia and Connected Communities, The British Library, London, UK. (December 2016).
Invited research seminar: ‘Spaces of Representation after ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’’. Performance and Cultural Industries Postgraduate Research Seminar, University of Leeds, UK. (April 2016).
Research Projects:
Understanding Impact: Applied Theatre and Community Drama at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts as lead researcher (2023).
'LIPA and Knowledge Exchange Case Study, ATCD L6 Theatre for Democracy', as lead researcher (2021).
'Migration and Settlement: Extending the Welcome', as a project manager and researcher (2017).
'Migration and Home: Welcome in Utopia', as a volunteer researcher (2016).
Other:
McKay, S. 2020. With Dr S McKay. The Half. [Podcast].
McKay, S. 2020. Theatre For Crisis. Culture Vulture. [Blog] 13/04/2020. Available at https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/theatre/coronavirus-impact-fund/