Dr. Shawna Mefferd Kelty is a first generation college graduate and received her Ph.D.
in Theatre from the University of Missouri. She is a current associate member of the
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and a 200-RYT hatha yoga and 85-hour
PRYT prenatal yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance.
At heart, Dr. Kelty is a generalist, with a great love of all the aspects of theatre.
Her experiences and interests in theatre are broad ranging from performance, directing,
and technical production to dramatic literature, history, and theory. She has directed
and performed in several original works (two off-Broadway directing credits). She
also worked as both performer and facilitator in two Theatre of the Oppressed interactive
theatre troupes. Her theatre work also extends into technical theatre as a master
electrician, scene shop supervisor, and a technical director among other backstage
roles.
Dr. Kelty is a distance runner, yoga practitioner/teacher, and encourages her students
to find an embodied practice that strengthens and grounds them physically, mentally,
and spiritually. You’ll probably see her out running or riding her bike to campus
(wearing a helmet, of course). She also will probably recommend about fifty podcasts
you should listen to when you get a chance because she LOVES to learn new things.
Dr. Kelty’s research and creative scholarship focuses on contemporary American theatre
and dramatic literature, new play development, and theatre pedagogy. She is the associate
editor of Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches, and Poems (2017). You can find her most recent theatre pedagogy research in Theatre Topics andTheatre/Practice. She is the drama editor for The Saranac Review. Dr. Kelty also serves as the theatre representative in the Faculty Senate.
On the national and regional stage, Dr. Kelty is the president of the Mid-America
Theatre Conference and has served in a variety of positions within the Association
for Theatre in Higher Education on the governing council and within the Theatre as
a Liberal Art Focus Group. She is the coordinator of the Kennedy Center American College
Theatre Festival Region I Fringe Festival and serves as a regional play respondent
and selector.
Locally she also serves as the president of the North Country Food Co-op’s board of
directors because she deeply believes in the 7 principles of cooperatives and that how we engage with where we live and the community where we live matters.
As theatre artists, we are the storytellers of and for our community.
Her dad often tells her that she’s no spring chicken, but she begs to differ.
Mefferd Kelty, Shawna. “Manifesto for Creation; or, Dismantling the Patriarchy in
Creative Spaces.” M(O)ther Perspectives: Staging Motherhood in 21st Century North American Theatre &
Performance edited by Lynn Deboeck and Aoise Stratford. Routledge, 2023.
Mefferd Kelty, Shawna. “Spinning Truth(s), Myths, Gossip, and Facts in the Theatre
History Classroom.” Theatre Topics, vol. 30 no. 3, 2020, p. 195–201.
Mefferd Kelty, Shawna. “We Have Lift-Off: The Pedagogy of Radical Empathy for First-Year
Student Success.” Theatre/Practice: The Online Journal of the Practice/Production Symposium of the Mid
America Theatre Conference, vol. 7, 2018.
Mefferd Kelty. “Antitheatricality and the Body Public,” Theatre History Studies, Vol. 37, 2018.
Crespy, David, editor and Shawna Mefferd Kelty, associate editor, Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches and Poetry. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, Fall 2017.
“Performing the Victor/Representing the Enemy Across the 49th Parallel: Contested
Territories, Histories, and Identities of the War of 1812,” American Theatre and Drama
Society Focus Group, ATHE, Aug 2018, Boston, MA.
“Spinning Truth(s,) Myths, Gossip, and Facts in the Theatre History Classroom,” Pedagogy
Symposium, MATC, March 2018, Milwaukee, WI.
“We Have Lift-Off: Discovering the Intellectual and Creative Universe through the
Theatre First Year Seminar,” Pedagogy Symposium, MATC, March 2017, Houston, TX.
“Disrupting the Classroom: Subversive Pedagogy in the Undergraduate and Graduate Classroom,”
Co-presentation with Dr. Emily Daniels, Conference on Teaching Excellence, October
2016, Plattsburgh, NY.
“Creating Gender Parity through Women’s Works in the Classroom,” Pedagogy Symposium,
MATC, March 2016, Minneapolis, MN.
“Dream Big: Artistic Literacy for the 21st Century,” Roundtable discussion, Theatre
as a Liberal Art focus group, ATHE, July 2014, Scottsdale, AZ.
“Developing Ensemble and Engaged-Learners through Liberatory Pedagogy,” Pedagogy Symposium,
MATC, March 2014, Cleveland, OH.
