Dr Lori Leigh is a Senior Research Fellow with the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago working with the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, Public Housing & Urban Regeneration programme: Maximising Wellbeing. Lori has a background in the creative and arts sector and is passionate about wellbeing and issues affecting Takatāpui/LGBTQIA+ identities.
Lori has a wide breadth of research interests including practice-based research. Their work focuses on gender and sexuality, Shakespeare, stagecraft, performance, and dramaturgy. Lori’s research has been published by Palgrave MacMillan, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Routledge. Additionally, they have presented on theatre in site-sympathetic and urban spaces as well as work that encourages audiences to rethink public space as “performing”. Lori also works as a professional writer, director, and dramaturg and has received several awards and nominations for their creative work including the top “Production of the Year” Wellington Theatre Award for their original drag musical, The Glitter Garden.