Evolution, Cognition, and Performance

Bruce McConachie is a Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh. A past President of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), he has also held visiting professorships at Northwestern University, the University of Warsaw, Helsinki University and Queen's University Belfast. His publications include Performance and Cognition: Theatre Studies and the Cognitive Turn (with Elizabeth Hart, 2006), Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre (2008) and Theatre and Mind (2013). He is the recipient of the Barnard Hewitt Award in Theatre History and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society for Theatre Research.

• Introduction: toward biocultural performance studies; 1. Enaction, evolution, and performance; 2. Rituals, image schemas, and cultural-cognitive ecosystems; 3. Sociality, emotions, and empathy; 4. The dynamics of making meanings; 5. A Deweyan ethics for performance studies.

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