Portrait of Dr Joe Parslow

Dr Joe Parslow

Head of Research and Postgraduate Provision, Associate Professor

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Dr Joe Parslow is a researcher, research leader, teacher and producer whose work spans queer performance, queer theory and research ethics and integrity. Their research centres on drag, cabaret, and burlesque, and how these practices facilitate queer communities. They are co-research lead for The Night Club: an international queer performance research network, and remain active in the UK’s drag scene, occasionally producing events alongside Me The Drag Queen, including the infamous Not Another Drag Competition. They have published on drag competitions, AI and drag performance, and queer failure alongside a long-term project on queer hopes beyond utopia and queer sober thinking.

As Head of Research and Postgraduate Provision, they provide strategic leadership for research excellence, REF development, and postgraduate taught and research, with a particular emphasis on practice research, research integrity, and sector-wide collaboration. Their work is characterised by a commitment to equitable, rigorous and collaborative research cultures that enable artists, researchers and educators to produce internationally recognised and world-leading work.

Selected Professional Practice & Industry Work

Central to Joe’s professional practice is a long-standing commitment to supporting queer performance communities through producing, programming and cultural leadership. Since 2013, they have produced drag and cabaret events across London, creating platforms for both emerging and internationally recognised artists. Their work bridges nightlife, performance, cultural heritage and public engagement, demonstrating how creative practice can generate meaningful community impact while shaping contemporary performance cultures.

Between 2016 and 2018, Joe supported Her Upstairs, an award-winning LGBTQ+ venue in Camden which became an important site for queer cultural production and artistic development. Their work has included collaborations with public institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they have produced major public events and contributed specialist consultancy on drag performance cultures, as well as collaborations with a range of organisations including The Alan Turing Institute, Raze Collective, Queer Performers’ Network, the campaign to re-open The Black Cap in Camden, and more.

A particular focus of Joe’s practice has been artist development and mentorship. Through projects such as Not Another Drag Competition, they have helped create pathways for early-career performers while supporting the long-term sustainability of queer performance ecologies. Many artists supported through these initiatives have progressed to work with major cultural organisations including the Royal Court Theatre, Southbank Centre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and BBC productions. This work is being formalised into a project supporting mid-career fellowships in 2026-2027, in collaboration with The Soho Theatre and funding by The British Academy.

Awards, Recognition & Media Profile

Joe’s article, Kings, Queens, Monsters and Things: Drag Performance and Queer Moves in Artificial Intelligence (AI), received a Special Mention in the Theatre and Performance Research Association Early Career Research Prize and an Honourable Mention in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Outstanding Article Award. The work has been widely read internationally and recognised for advancing new understandings of performance, technology and queer culture.

Industry Collaborations & Partnerships

Joe’s work is defined by sustained collaboration across higher education, cultural institutions and professional networks, bridging both formal and informal collaborations. They have worked with the Victoria and Albert Museum as both producer and research consultant, contributing to projects that connect academic research with major public audiences. Their contribution to The Zizi Show, a flagship installation in the museum’s Photography Centre, helped shape a project that reached more than half a million visitors and has since entered the museum’s permanent collection.

Beyond the cultural sector, they are an active participant in national research and higher education networks. Their leadership roles have involved engagement with UK Research and Innovation, Research England, the UK Committee on Research Integrity, Conservatoires UK, DramaHE (as an executive committee member with responsibility for scholarships and awards) and the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA). Through these activities, Joe advocates for the needs of specialist arts institutions and contributes to the development of national policy and practice relating to research, ethics and higher education.

Teaching & Mentorship

Joe has extensive experience as a teacher, supervisor, course leader and curriculum developer across undergraduate and postgraduate education. Their teaching spans queer performance, applied theatre, socially engaged practice, performer training, research methods and practice research, and is characterised by a commitment to integrating creative practice with critical enquiry.

They have taught and led significant curriculum redevelopment projects across conservatoire settings. At Rose Bruford College, they have overseen the postgraduate portfolio, supporting innovative programmes that respond to contemporary creative industries and research environments.

Joe has supervised postgraduate and doctoral researchers working across performance, queer studies, digital cultures and applied theatre, including students supported through Arts and Humanities Research Council funding schemes. They are particularly interested in supporting doctoral projects centred on practice research and interdisciplinary scholarship that bridges artistic, academic and public contexts and are open to hearing from potential PhD students in any of their areas of expertise.

Research & Knowledge Exchange

Joe’s research focuses on drag performance, queer communities, practice research, queer nightlife and queer research. Their work examines how queer performance cultures create, sustain and transform communities while contributing to broader debates around identity, ethics, belonging and cultural change. More recently, they have developed internationally recognised research exploring drag performance and artificial intelligence, positioning queer performance as a critical lens through which to understand technological futures. They are currently working on several project alongside Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson, including work on queer nightlife and DIY methodologies, queer research methodologies, and open access queer research development through Queer Performance Journal (QPJ). Their next research project involves an expansive exploration of queer hope after 2020 and how it emerges across performance, art and culture, developing personal and academic writing through queer sober methodologies.

They have shared research across four continents at academic conferences (including TaPRA, ATHE and IFTR) and given talks at the Tate Britain, the Alan Turing Institute, the Bush Theatre and the Queer Performers’ Network.

They are currently undertaking two projects funded by the British Academy. The first, Developing Drag, supports mid-career drag performers to develop long form performances through workshops and mentoring alongside Me The Drag Queen. The second, QUEERDEMOS, develops a consortium of LGBTQIA+ scholars and activists across Europe to support queer policy development, alongside Dr Erdem Avsar.

Selected Publications

‘Making Shit Happen: Queer Utility in Nightlife’. TDR: The Drama Review. 70(2), pp. 144-162. With Phoebe Patey-Ferguson, 2026
Their Majesty: Drag performance and Queer Communities in London, Abingdon: Routledge, 2024.
‘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), 33(1-2): 128-48 (TaPRA Early Career Researcher Prize Special Mention, ATHE Outstanding Article Award Honorary Mention), 2023.
‘Not Another Drag Competition: From amateur to professional drag performance’, Performance Research, 25(1), pp. 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, 2020.
‘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, 2018.

Academic Qualifications

PhD, When The Lights Are Shining On Them: Drag Performance and Queer Communities in London, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
MA Sexual Dissidence in Literature and Culture, University of Sussex
BA (Hons) Drama, Applied Theatre & Education, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Additional

Joe has a keen interest in ethics and integrity for arts and humanities research, and practice research in performance, and have worked collaboratively at intuitional and national levels to lead developments in these areas. This work is about championing arts and humanities research and work in small and specialist institutions, recognising diverse ecologies of research in the UK and beyond. Their work in this area, particularly as an Early Career Researcher, was highlighted by the UK Committee on Research Integrity (UKCORI) and led to consultation with UKRI’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Caucus (EDICa).

They have previously been Co-Convenor of the Queer Futures Working Group at the International Federation of Theatre Research (2018-2022) and continue to support the Working Group and have previously been an executive committee member of DramaHE (formally SCUDD) and Theatre and Performance Research Association.

The are currently the Reviews Editor for Contemporary Theatre Review (CTR).

They are particularly interested in supporting doctoral projects centred on practice research and interdisciplinary scholarship that bridges artistic, academic and public contexts and are open to hearing from potential PhD students in any of their areas of expertise.

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