Will Bixby is a PhD candidate in Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama Program whose research sits at the intersection of performance studies, puppetry, and play. He was the Assistant Editor for Making Meaning in Puppetry: Materials, Practice, Perception, and his work appears in Puppetry International. 

Scott T. Cummings teaches and directs plays in the Theatre Department of Boston College. He is the author or editor of four books about contemporary American theatre directors and playwrights.

Tim Cusack is the co-editor, along with Claudia Orenstein, of Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, which received the Nancy Staub award from UNIMA-USA. His puppet adaptation of Camus’s Caligula, created in collaboration with Bizzy Barefoot, premiered at Chinkapin in Tennessee in 2024. BFA NYU/TSOA. MA Hunter/CUNY.

Ana Díaz Barriga is a Mexican puppetry practitioner and scholar with an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theater and Drama and expertise in cognitive science. Ana’s work has appeared in Puppetry International, and Theatre Topics, among others. Ana recently edited a special focus section on puppet dramaturgy for Puppetry International Research and she serves on the editorial committee for UNIMAgazine, UNIMA’s international puppetry publication. 

Rahul Koonathara is a Hariott Fellowship recipient currently pursuing graduate studies in the Department of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut. He is an active practitioner of the traditional Indian art of tholpavakoothu (shadow puppetry), while also exploring contemporary puppetry practices and conducting academic research in puppetry arts. Rahul holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Connecticut, a master’s degree in Folklore Studies, and a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Calicut. He has also completed an intensive acting diploma certificate program at the National School of Drama, Bangalore.

Katherine McNamara (katherinemcnamara.writer@gmail.com),  an author, founded the online journal Archipelago and was editor-coauthor of Peter Kalifornsky’s From the First Beginning, When the Animals Were Talking and From the Believing Time, When They Tested for the Truth. She has contributed reviews and essays to this site and to Puppetry International Research. 

Jesse Njus teaches graduate and undergraduate theatre history at Virginia Commonwealth University. She previously taught at Fordham University and NYU and spent two years as an ACLS New Faculty Fellow at UC-Santa Barbara. Jesse specializes in medieval performance and has published articles in journals including Theatre Journal, Fifteenth-Century Studies, Puppetry International Research, Puppetry Journal, and Church History and in edited collections such as Food and Theatre on the World Stage and Mystics, Goddesses, Lovers, and Teachers. Jesse served as the assistant editor of the SETC journal Theatre Symposium and is currently co-editing The Global Middle Ages: Global Drama with Rob Barrett as part of a Cambridge series. She also co-hosts the Ask a Medievalist podcast with her LAMBDA-award-nominated cousin E. H. Lupton.