Jean-Marie Pradier

Is Professor Emeritus at the Theatre Department of the University of Paris VIII, of which he was co-director, a holder of PhDs in psychology and literature, and a theatre studies scholar. He began teaching at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Toulouse while working as a theatre professional with an experimental group and in the psychiatric field in France. Following research in Iraqi Kurdistan, he was expelled by the Turkish authorities for his work on the Kurdish national liberation movement. For five years he worked in Uruguay, where he founded the Teatro Laboratorio de Montevideo before being appointed to the University of Rabat. A founding member of the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) since its creation in 1979 by Eugenio Barba, he was one of the guiding lights in the foundation of ethnoscenology (1995), a branch of ethno-aesthetics dedicated to the study of human spectacle and performance practice. He is scientific director of the journal L’Ethnographie, author of numerous publications and a member of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Paris Nord. He continues his research in the interdisciplinary study of embodiments of the imaginary (of which the performing arts are a subset) and has organized conferences and summer schools on this theme, as well as serving as a visiting professor at several foreign universities. Among his published works, two in particular focus on ethnoscenology: La scène et la fabrique des corps. Ethnoscénologie du spectacle vivant en Occident (1997) and Fànic, Fàlic, Fàtic – Vers una teoria neurocultural dels espectacles vius (1998).