Walter Puchner

Walter Puchner was born in Vienna in 1947. He studied Theatre Science (Theatrology) at the University of Vienna and earned his doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy in 1972, with a dissertation on modern Greek shadow theatre. In 1977, he was appointed as a lecturer at the same university, with a thesis on the birth of theatre in Greek folk culture. Since then, he has permanently settled in Greece. He taught Theatre History for twelve years at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Crete. Since 1989, he has been teaching at the University of Athens, initially in the Department of Philology and from 1991 in the Department of Theatre Studies, where he serves as vice-chair. Concurrently, he taught Theatrology at the University of Vienna until 2006 and has been invited multiple times as a visiting professor at European and American universities. In 1994, he was elected a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and in 2001, he was awarded the "Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art" for his scientific achievements. He has published more than 90 books and 400 studies on topics related to Greek and Balkan theatre, comparative folklore, Byzantine and modern Greek studies in general, as well as theatre and drama theory.