John Bell started performing as a puppeteer with the Bread and Puppet Theater, and as a member of that company for over a dozen years learned about the global breadth of puppetry. After earning his Ph.D. in theater history at Columbia University, he began teaching at the college level, and is presently an assistant professor of performing arts at Emerson College. He is a founding member of the Brooklyn-based theater group Great Small Works, with whom he performs and directs. He is a Contributing Editor to both TDR and Puppetry International and the author of Strings, Hands, Shadows: A Modern Puppet History (Detroit Institute of Arts) and editor of Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects (MIT Press).