Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts
University of Pittsburgh

Patrick McKelvey is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in performance studies, theatre history, and disability studies.  Before joining the faculty at Pitt, he received his Ph.D. from Brown University in 2017 and taught at Florida State University’s School of Theatre from 2016 to 2018. His first book, Disability Works: US Performance After Rehabilitation, is under contract with NYU Press, and he has published essays in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings (ed. Clare Croft; Oxford, 2017). 

McKelvey’s 2016 essay, “Ron Whyte’s ‘Disemployment’ Prosthetic Performance and Theatrical Labor” (Theatre Survey) received three “best article” awards: from the American Society for Theatre Research, the American Theatre and Drama Society, and the Committee for LGBT History. OnTAP: A Theatre and Performance Studies Podcast dedicated a segment to his 2019 article, “A Disabled Actor Prepares” (Theatre Journal), which the Drama League includes in its bank of “Anti-Oppression Resources” for theatre and systemic change. McKelvey is currently completing Disability Works and beginning research toward his second book project, Supporting Actors: A Disability History of Theatrical Welfare from Springbrook to Broadway Cares.