Dr Joe Parslow

I am queer lecturer, writer, producer and researcher working at the intersection of queer popular performance and LGBTQ+ communities. At Central, I am a Lecturer in Popular and Queer Performance and I also support research ethics and integrity both as part of Central’s Research Ethics and Integrity Subcommittee and Conservatoire’s UK Research Ethics Committee. I teach across theatre and performance, with specialisms in queer performance and queer theory, drag and cabaret and practice research.

I hold a PhD from Central exploring drag performance and queer communities in contemporary London. My forthcoming monograph, Their Majesties: Drag Performance and Queer Communities in London will be published by Routledge (2023) as part of their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Series. My research explores performance and performance making which is both popular and experimental (and sometimes both at the same time!). Often this performance work is socially-engaged and community-driven, focussed on LGBTQ+ performance and communities. Primarily, I research drag and queer performance in relation to queer studies and politics, considering how alternative presents and futures are imagined through popular and experimental performance. My current research (beyond my first monograph) includes a project involving Artificial Intelligence and drag performance as part of a wider collaboration between myself, Me The Drag Queen and an AI artist Jake Elwes, an encyclopaedia entry on drag performance and a second monograph in development exploring Contemporary Queer Hope.

I have shared my research across three continents at academic conferences (including TaPRA, ATHE and IFTR) and given talks at the Tate Britain, the Bush Theatre and the Queer Performers’ Network. I was Co-Convenor of the Queer Futures Working Group at the International Federation of Theatre Research (2018-2022) and continue to support the Working Group. I am currently a General member of DramaHE (formally SCUDD) Executive Committee.

Teaching Areas

• Queer Theory and Queer Performance
• Ethics and Research Ethics
• Applied Theatre and Community Performance
• Popular Performance

Areas of Expertise

• Queer Studies, Queer Theory
• Drag and Cabaret Performance
• Performance and Community
• Critical Theory and Performance
• Sexuality, Identity and Performance

Key Publications

Forthcoming (2023), Their Majesty: Drag performance and Queer Communities in London, (Abingdon: Routledge)

Forthcoming (2023) Kings, Queens, Monsters and Things: Digital Drag Performance and Queer Moves in Artificial Intelligence (AI).,  in Contemporary Theatre Review (Special Issue: What’s Queer About Queer Performance Now) eds. Alyson Campbell, Stephen Farrier & Manola Gayatri Kumarswamy.

2020. ‘Not Another Drag Competition: From amateur to professional drag performance’, Performance Research, 25(1): 18-24

2020. ‘Dragging the Mainstream: RuPaul’s Drag Race and Moving Drag Practices Between the USA and the UK’ in Edward, Mark & Stephen Farrier. eds. 2020. Contemporary Drag Practices and Performers: Drag in a Changing Scene (London: Bloomsbury), pp. 19-31

2019. ‘Come Hear The Music Play: The Politics of Queer Failure and Practices of Survival’ in Fisher, Tony & Eve Katsouraki. eds. 2019. Beyond Failure: New Essays on the Cultural History of Failure in Theatre and Performance (Abingdon: Routledge), pp. 79-93 

2019. ‘Queer Stages: LGBTQ+ Venues, Drag Performance, and Hope,’ Urban Pamphleteer #7, LGBTQ+ Night Time Spaces: Past, Present, Future, pp. 22-24 

Practice

I have worked extensively as a producer of performance events in queer nightlife settings for a decade, working with a large range of drag, burlesque and cabaret performers including performers from RuPaul’s Drag Race to sell-out crowds in their thousands. As well as nightlife settings, I produce drag shows and performance festivals in mainstream settings such as the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. I have worked as a producer of performance events in academic and non-academic settings, from practice research festivals and festivals of drag and queer performance, to regular and one-off club performances and events in nightlife venues in London. As a producer, I am interested in creating work which is innovative and playful and I am committed to working with and alongside minority communities and performers to make inclusive and accessible events and performances. My practice is most exciting when I get to bring the sensibilities and practices of club and cabaret performance such as drag and burlesque into more formal or academic settings (and vice versa). I was a founder of the queer nightlife venue Her Upstairs (2016-2018), and remain a vocal advocate of the importance of LGBTQ+ nightlife venues in London (most notably in the campaign to re-open The Black Cap in Camden, London). I am an active supporter of the Raze Collective, a charity supporting queer performance, and I am always interested in hearing from queer performers from any field who would like to discuss performance and performance-making opportunities.