Walter Puchner

Born in Vienna in 1947, he studied theatre at the University of Vienna. In 1972 he received his doctorate in philosophy at the same university with a dissertation on Greek shadow theatre, and in 1977 he became Associate Professor of Theatre Studies with a habilitation treatise on the evolution of theatrical forms in Greek folk culture. In the years 1977–1989 he taught theatre history at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Crete, then theatre theory in the newly founded Department of Theatre Studies at the University of Athens where he is currently the dean. He has also taught theatre history for thirty years at the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna. He has been an invited guest professor at many European and American universities. In 1994 he was elected a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and in 2001 he was decorated with the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art. He has published more than sixty books and about 300 publications in scientific periodicals. His research topics are the history of theatre in the Balkan Peninsula, comparative folklore and ethnography of the Mediterranean area, and Byzantine and Modern Greek studies, as well as theory of drama and theatre.