Bollege’s Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J. professor in theatre arts for the 2012-2013 academic year. Bell, a noted scholar, artist, curator, and social activist, is recognized as a leading international authority on puppet theater.
“I’m pleased and honored to be the Monan Professor of Theatre Arts this year at Boston College,” Bell said in a release by the Office of News and Public Affairs. “Puppetry-a centuries-old global tradition with roots in every culture-has become a valuable component of theater education today and a conspicuous element in contemporary theater, film, television, as well as on the Internet and in community performance. This ancient form is an utterly viable 21st-century medium.
Since 2007, Bell has been director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut, and he is also the author of several books on the topic of puppetry in modernity.
Bell is also a founding member of the Brooklyn-based theater company Great Small Works, which uses folk and popular theater traditions to comment on modern social issues. Bell earned his Ph.D. in theatre history from Columbia University, and has taught at universities including Harvard, MIT, Emerson College, New York University, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
