Scott Magelssen is Executive Director and Floyd U. Jones Family Endowed Chair of the UW School of Drama. He is a Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies. He is the author of Performing Flight: From the Barnstormers to Space Tourism, (University of Michigan Press, 2020), Simming: Participatory Performance and the Making of Meaning (University of Michigan Press, 2014), and Living History Museums (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007). He is also co-editor of Enveloping Worlds: Toward a Discourse of Immersive Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2025), Enacting History (University of Alabama Press, 2011), and Theatre Historiography: Critical Interventions (University of Michigan Press, 2010).

Magelssen is a member of the Simpson Center Executive Board beginning in Autumn 2026.