Scott Mealey

Associate Director of the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research

PhD in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (University of Toronto)

MA (University of Toronto), BA (Dalhousie University)

Scott is the Associate Director of the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research, which marries his passion for mixed method research and his longing for an impactful Canadian Church. Scott served for nearly fifteen years as a pastor on the East Coast, including twelve years as a church planter to Millennials with little church background. He returned to academia full-time in 2012 and his doctoral dissertation examined the evidence for how theatre does/does not change its spectators. His empirical approach and focus on emic sense-making has led to SSHRC-funded collaborations and publications in Contemporary Theatre Review, TRiC, RiDE, and the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. He serves as a co-director of the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research and has consulted with faith-based, educational, and activist organizations. Scott loves teaching and has taught practice, theory, and history at Crandall University, Humber College, and the University of Toronto where he continues as a Sessional II instructor.

Recent publications

“(Ac)counting for Change: Artist-friendly, Quantitative Approaches for Recognizing and Contextualizing Shifts in Spectatorial Thinking,” Impacting Audiences: Methods for Studying Change, edited by Dani Snyder-Young and Matt Omasta, Routledge, 2022, pp. 173-188.

“Power, Perception, and Professionalism: An Empirical Study of Digital Theatre Criticism in Canada” with Michelle MacArthur and Signy Lynch, Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 31, no. 4, 2021, pp. 455-470.

“From Site to Self: Immersion, Audience Research, and Polyvocality” with Kelsey Jacobson, Kelsey Blair, and Jenny Salisbury, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, vol. 36, no. 1, 2021, pp. 75-93.

“Making and Appreciating Theatre: Lessons in Ethical Relationality and Prototype Expansion” with Kathleen Gallagher, Prototyping Across the Disciplines: Designing Better Futures, edited by J. Roberts-Smith, S. Ruecker, and M. Radzikowska, Intellect Books, 2021, ch. 3.1.

“Performative Measures: An Exploration of Cross-Pollinating Drama and Quantitative Research,” A Global Youth Citizenry: Theorizing Community-Engaged Research Methodology, edited by Kathleen Gallagher, Dirk Rodricks, and Kelsey Jacobson, Springer, 2020, pp. 219-243.

Co-edited Special Issue on 21st-Century Shifts in Spectatorship and Audience Research with Kelsey Jacobson, Cassandra Silver, and Jenny Salisbury, Performance Matters, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019.