UNIMA-USA is proud to launch the WINTER 2025 issue of Puppetry International Research!

Song of the North. The shadow figures of war are cast on the screen. (Photo: Richard Termine)

Free, available to all, full of new thoughts and insights, Puppetry International Research, an open access scholarly journal, is another step in UNIMA-USA's goal to promote, educate, and support growth in the art of puppetry as well as to provide resources to people who find puppetry important to their lives.

Volume 2, No. 1 features a Focus Section on Puppets and War: Contemporary Perspectives from Ukraine, guest edited by Matt Smith and Nataliia Borodina, with contributions from Smith, Borodina, Tamara Rozova, Tetyana Ovcharenko, Tetiana Zinovieva, and Sofiia Rosa-Laverentii, providing first-hand views and analysis of the work of puppeteers in the context of war. Salma Mohseni Ardehali analyzes performing objects in Iranian Muharram processions; Deniz Başar investigates the exclusion of women in Karagöz puppetry in Turkey and their paths into the art. Seiko Shimura and Robin Ruizendaal report on their workshop, developed across Taiwan and Japan, using shadow puppetry to connect Japanese students to bunraku. Rahul Koonathara informs readers about the Wonderland Puppets Symposium at the University of Connecticut and the Wayang, Ecology and the Sacred Symposium at Yale. Fedelis Kyalo gives a comprehensive account of UNIMA Africa Commission’s workshops and Pro-Vocation: Roots and Wings conference. Reviews include Keith Byron Kirk on Paulette Richards’ Object Performance in the Black Atlantic: The United States, Lawrence Switzky on Claudia Orenstein’s Reading the Puppet Stage: Reflections on the Dramaturgy of Performing Objects, Cheyenne Bryant on Nehprii Amenii’s Human, and Marzieh Ashrafian on Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North.

Puppetry International Research (PIR) is a global, interdisciplinary, academic journal dedicated to puppetry and the allied areas of masks, performing objects, and material performance. Its mission is to foster scholarship on puppet theatre and related arts as practiced in the past and present around the world and deepen historical and theoretical understanding of the field. Its empirical, analytical, and theoretical peer-reviewed articles, as well as critical book, performance, and exhibition reviews, and field reports aim to strengthen puppetry studies as an academic discipline. The journal welcomes submissions from scholars and reflective practitioners from all related disciplines. A project of UNIMA-USA, growing out of the peer-review section of its acclaimed magazine, Puppetry International, PIR publishes twice a year on the CUNY Academic Commons.