Meet our faculty & sessional instructors

Kelsey Blair joined the School of Communication at the University of the Fraser Valley in 2025. Previously, she researched and taught across a range of subjects at universities in B.C. and Quebec. She has also worked as a freelance writer, editor, and communication's manager and authored several children's books. Her areas of research interest include theatre, sport, and performance studies; critical theory and communication; and theatre audience studies. She is also a Co-Director of the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research.

PhD, English, University of Simon Fraser
MA, Theatre Studies, University of British Columbia
MA, Cinema Studies, University of Toronto
BA, Film Studies, University of British Columbia

Canadian Association of Theatre Research
Basketball British Columbia
Neworld Theatre

In my teaching, I aim to create engaging and accessible learning environments that support student experiences and form temporary classroom communities. 

Professional Communication
Editing and Publishing
Theories of Communication
Indigenous Communication
Social Media and Writing for Interaction

Sport and Performance Studies
Theatre and Performance Studies
Critical Theory
Musical Theatre
Theatre Audience Studies
Community-Engaged Arts and Performance

2025  “Sport, Performance, and Pain,” at the Northeastern Popular Culture Association Conference, Virtual, October 11, 2025. 

2023  Participant/Convener. “Wading into Audience Research,” at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference,” Halifax, June 17, 2023. 

2023  With Maggie McDonnell. “Multi-Course Experiential Learning in Writing Education in Canada: A Case Study,” at the Society for Teaching and Learning Conference, Prince Edward Island, June 14, 2022.

2022  “Toughing it out: Sport Performance and Cultural Understandings of Risk, Harm, and Pain,” at the American Society for Theatre Research Conference, New Orleans, November 03, 2022.

2022  “Popular Audience Negotiations,” Re-Collecting Roundtable: Audiences, Spectatorship, and Participation After the Pandemic at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference, Virtual, June 07, 2022.

2022  Participant. “Moving Together to Reclaim and Resist: une exploration déambulatoire du territoireat” at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference, Virtual, June 07, 2022.

2021  “What’s in a Genre?: Performance, Physical Practice, and Interpretation in Contemporary Circus” at Circus and It’s Others Conference, Online, November 06, 2021.

2021  Participant. “Moving Together to Reclaim and Resist: une exploration déambulatoire du territoireat” at the Canadian Association for Theatre  Research Conference, Online October 24, 2021.

2021  “Ordinary Spectacles and Physical Culture in Contemporary Circus” at the International Federation for Theatre Research Conference, Popular Entertainments Working Group, International Federations for Theatre Research, Online, July 12, 2021.

2021  “From the Broadway Belt to the Contract and Release in Contemporary Ballet: Female Physical Practice Across Performance Genres,” Telephone Hour, The Musical Theatre/Dance Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Online, January 25, 2021.

Books

2022  Sport and Performance in the Twenty-First Century, Routledge. 

Articles and Chapter

2025  “Historical Overview: Playable Female Athlete Characters in Sport Simulation Videogames,” The International Journal of the History of Sport, 41(9), 886–907. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2024.2387638 

2022  With Megan Johnson. “I am Invictus”: Parasport, the Invictus Games, and Disability Performance in Canada.” Theatre Research in Canada, 43.1, pp 96-114.

2021  “The Believability of Basketball: The Multiple Bodies of the Female Performer in The Tall Girls.” Chow, Broderick & Eero Laine eds. Sports Plays. Routledge, pp 99-114.

2021  With Kelsey Jacobson, Jenny Salisbury & Scott Mealey. “The Concerted Observers: Exploring a Polyvocal Approach to Audience Sense-making,” Joint Issue, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and Global Performance Studies, JDTC, 36.1, pp. 75-93.

2021  “Empty Gestures: Performative Utterances and Allyship,” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 35.2, pp. 53-73.