Wesley Cornwell is a historian and theorist of modern culture. He studies the philosophical, technological, and architectural histories of modern theater and performance. His dissertation traces the emergence and professionalization of lighting design in order to better understand the relationship between technological change, aesthetic imagination, and creative labor.

Wesley maintains an ongoing practice as a theater designer, and his designs have been seen at Off-Broadway and indie theaters, including Pershing Square Signature Center, Theater Row, American Theater of Actors, The Tank, Theater for the New City, Under St. Marks, and more.

He is currently a PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he has earned certificates in Comparative Media and Gender and Sexuality Studies. He holds an MDes from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and a BA in Anthropology and Theatre from Princeton, where he was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts.